Asperger's Syndrome - "Aspie" - Attwood and Gray

[Lara]

The Discovery of "Aspie" Criteria

The Discovery of "Aspie" Criteria
By Carol Gray and Tony Attwood, M.Sc., Ph.D., MAPS., AFBPsS

A qualitative advantage in social interaction, as manifested by a majority of the following:

• peer relationships characterized by absolute loyalty and impeccable dependability
• free of sexist, "age-ist", or culturalist biases; ability to regard others at "face value"
• speaking one’s mind irrespective of social context or adherence to personal beliefs
• ability to pursue personal theory or perspective despite conflicting evidence
• seeking an audience or friends capable of: enthusiasm for unique interests and topics;
• consideration of details; spending time discussing a topic that may not be of primary interest
• listening without continual judgement or assumption
• interested primarily in significant contributions to conversation; preferring to avoid "ritualistic small talk" or socially trivial statements and superficial conversation
• seeking sincere, positive, genuine friends with an unassuming sense of humor

Fluent in "Aspergerese", a social language characterized by at least three of the following:

• a determination to seek the truth
• conversation free of hidden meaning or agenda
• advanced vocabulary and interest in words
• fascination with word-based humor, such as puns
• advanced use of pictorial metaphor

Cognitive skills characterized by at least four of the following:

• strong preference for detail over gestalt
• original, often unique perspective in problem solving
• exceptional memory and/or recall of details often forgotten or disregarded by others, for example: names, dates, schedules, routines
• avid perseverance in gathering and cataloging information on a topic of interest
• persistence of thought
• encyclopedic or "CD ROM" knowledge of one or more topics
• knowledge of routines and a focused desire to maintain order and accuracy
• clarity of values/decision making unaltered by political or financial factors

Additional possible features:

• acute sensitivity to specific sensory experiences and stimuli, for example: hearing, touch, vision, and/or smell
• strength in individual sports and games, particularly those involving endurance or visual accuracy, including rowing, swimming, bowling, chess
• "social unsung hero" with trusting optimism: frequent victim of social weaknesses of others, while steadfast in the belief of the possibility of genuine friendship
• increased probability over general population of attending university after high school
• often take care of others outside the range of typical development

[tgrimes]

They make it sound like a "must have" disorder. Does the book read like this all the way through?
Maybe I should check this out, there's not much about the positive side of things. I think I read another book by Attwood but I don't remember what title was.

[Mother's Heart]

tgrimes....I think this may be just an article, rather than a book. If you click on the link in the thread it goes to the entire article. refreshing perspective, isn't it?

[Isabelle]

My, my! 30 years ago that description of aspergers would be considered a variation of our humanity now is aspergers ...hmmmmmm

I even I could be aspergers because I do have some of those traits.

What is normal?

BTW where are the features of a "normal" person at any given time?

[tgrimes]

This article is actually kind of weird... I know as a mom I definitely want to talk or hear about the positive things about autism, but if I were a doctor I would be embarrassed to identify even mostly positives, unless it was a clinical study of some concrete advantages that included an NT control group.
If the rest of the medical community embraces this, then maybe they should reconsider whether it is even a disorder. This kind of fluff description sounds more like a horoscope than a diagnosis....
I think it trivializes the real challenges of a disorder that for most significantly affects functional ability.

[Lara]

Hi, didn't get back to read your messages until now.

from the paper:Unlike diagnosis, the term discovery often refers to the identification of a person’s strengths or talents.

It is not a description of Asperger's Syndrome.
If you read the rest of the article it shows that it is not diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Syndrome at all.
It is a paper regarding the 'discovery of "Aspie"' as defined by the two authors. That is all.

It is just another perspective to add to all the stereotypes, definitions and criteria and such that almost always focus on the negatives. That's what diagnosing an illness or a condition is all about isn't it?

My understanding of this paper is that they wrote it to show another perspective to focus on strengths and not weaknesses. That's all. It's not sitting in doctor's offices to use as an aid to diagnose someone lol.

I wrote a very positive outlook about Tourette Syndrome once. I know that many people either hated it or embraced it. There wasn't too much middle ground. The people who thought it was sugar-coated weren't really seeing the reason I wrote it. There are so many negative stereotypes and definitions and diagnostic criteria for so many parts of what makes people who they are, that it's sometimes helpful to me to read some of the more positive aspects and then I'm reminded to be more optimistic than I would otherwise be. Otherwise I am the type of person who might as well go curl up in a ball and shut off the world lol I'm 100% sure that it wasn't meant to trivialize anything. I'm always reminded about how looking for positives in students at school, just an example, seems to work better in the long run than focusing on their weaknesses.

Hey, it's just another perspective. It's not written in stone.

p.s. Here's the full article again.
http://www.thegraycenter.org/sectionsdetails.cfm?id=38

p.p.s. Here's the DSM IV Diagnostic Criteria for Asperger's Disorder

[tgrimes]

Originally Posted by Lara

... I'm always reminded about how looking for positives in students at school, just an example, seems to work better in the long run than focusing on their weaknesses. ...

Lara - this is so true... and thanks for reminding me too. I don't know why I got so negative about that, I went and reread it and the article started out by saying "what if" .
I think this is the whole reason school is so painful for my child because the focus is constantly on what's wrong rather than what is right.
I know a couple of times here on this board we have tried to identify the positive aspects of autism too, and there are many.

[Kristen (ColeysMom)]

I think another way to 'read it' is that it's a way to view some of the same 'flaws' as positives...the fact that many of the traits tend to be clumped into one being I think is what would classify as diagnostic criteria, but each item on it's own is a nice way to see that something like 'self-directed' can mean motivated and determined versus anti-social, ya know! I like it!

Thanks for posting this...I need to post to you guys bad and this was so timely!

Sorry I've been AWOL! Things have been a bit hectic, not in an all together bad way, mostly busy, but some challenges too...anyway we had parent night at the school last night, and I really need your perspective on some stuff....just need to get my thoughts together...

be back soon...

KJ