Invading personal space ?

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This was mentioned by the assessor at my 3rd ASD assessment. I confess to being puzzled about it. We were all sitting in chairs quite close to each other so I can’t see how I could have avoided doing so if how close you are to someone dictates it. That is not to say I am a good judge of what’s appropriate re personal space. I may be poor at it . I just can’t see how I could have avoided doing so in the situation I’ve described.

I'm not getting what you're saying. Are you saying the assessor asked if you felt your personal space was being invaded by the assessor's proximity or that the assessor said you were invading the assessor's personal space by your proximity?

All of us have varying ideas about appropriate amounts of personal space. It depends on the people involved and the situation. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about how much or how little is appropriate. I think the biggest problem is not knowing or realizing that we are making others uncomfortable by being too close.

That I was invading her personal space. Someone on another forum suggested it could be due to my leaning in. I wasn't aware I was doing it if so.

Yes, that is it. Some people are aware of the concept of "personal space." You do not. The chairs were close together as a test.

You should look at this as an assessment of what you can and can't do. I can't reach the top shelf of stores. I can lift heavy containers of cat litter into my car.

Could be they were close together as a test , but the room was quite small anyway.

Sounds like a poor test to me.

I hate having anyone too close to me, but if the chairs were seated closer than I was comfortable with, I wouldn't be likely to complain about it. I would likely just try to suffer it in silence despite feeling uncomfortable.

Then it would be up to the observer to detect that you were uncomfortable.

So as they're assessing you and asking questions they're also observing behaviour patterns, be they non- verbal or verbal ?

Yep. That's absolutely true. That's what they are doing.

Not me. I would have moved my chair farther away from the other chair as an automatic reflex. I need my personal space. If the assessor would say something like: "Move your chair right next to mine." I would feel the need to respond with something like: "Ok, but I have to say that I feel more comfortable having some personal space."

Guess I'm just not comfortable making that kinda 'fuss' (That's not to say I can' be fussy, I most definitely can be at times, but that circumstance likely wouldn't be it), so I would be unlikely to protest out loud.

I might slide my chair back though, trying to be subtle while also getting slightly more comfy.



When I was in for my assessment, there was a chair at one side of the table (let's call it north), a chair on the south side of the table and sofa to the west. For some reason I assumed she would take the north chair, so I went for the south west part of the sofa, able to sit as far away as I could while also not facing her unless I chose to.

Your person was almost certainly gauging your interpersonal skills and seeing your awareness of personal space.

I would have moved my chair, like Magna. If I was told not to, I'd make it very clear how uncomfortable I was.

In my assessment the doctor primarily sat behind her desk. I had a chair which I moved around depending on my comfort level. For some of the assessment I sat on the floor with my legs out straight so I could listen better. I love sitting on the floor so that felt right for me. When I was on the chair I moved it around or rocked on it, and I sat in twisty shapes (with my legs crossed, or with my knees under my chin -- hugging my legs). I'm not very good at chairs. I also had my shoes off for the whole assessment so that I was just in my socks.

I told her ahead of time I would need to move a lot and I explained why. She said it was fine for me to sit in whatever way I felt most comfortable, so that's what I did. Personally, I think your inability to understand social etiquette or personal space would be noted as a potential sign of ASD.

Does understanding social etiquette come naturally to most people? I'm not sure if it's connected but I have been described as having very poor social skills.

It seems like social skills do come naturally to most people. Either that, or neurotypical people learn to mimic from a young age; the 'copying' doesn't interfere with their development or cause anxiety the way it does for people on the spectrum.

Autistic children often demonstrate an impairment in social skill from the time they are babies. For example they seldom wave bye-bye, follow the direction of someone pointing, respond to games such as peek-a-boo, etc. Of course this isn't true of all autistic babies, but it's one developmental criterion in assessment.

This may be a good reason for doing an assessment over multiple sessions. Additional tests can be done if needed.