When I was a young kid, I couldn't speak a damn word or two, until I was six. Only could remember alphabets, all of it without getting it mirrored. My parents wanted to send me to some specialist to diagnose my "learning disabilities" but they had to wait when I was doing my primary school! In my primary schooling, I was declared "abnormal". I wasn't paying much attention in classrooms, and ended up doodling on tables and papers. I was a young dude who was fascinated with transistors, resistors and capacitors (got very excited looking at the 7-segments) instead of the conventional action figures or boring story books. I was "labelled" as "autistic" and probably "dumb" by many of my classmates (and even somebody else's parents), but that didn't stop me from doing my own stuff. What is "autistic" meaning there for them? Just because I couldn't get an "A"? Or, just because it's not "mainstream"? I might be autistic, but what would I care? I think the autistic people I know are very skilled people. I suggest that everyone is just unique. We live in a world full of wrong assumptions and stereotypes.
Well, I wouldn't fault them at that time. Many people didn't know what autism was. Not even doctors. It was a rather new disorder at that time... In fact, long ago, autistic kids were considered to be schizophrenic, and treated as such. In the 60s and 70s, they were even treated with electric shocks and LSD! Obviously, we know better now. That's the good news... The other good thing is that we can better detect autism at younger ages, so children can be treated earlier with better outcomes. While autism remains a stigma for many people, it's encouraging that many parents are being open about it. More importantly, they are treating their autistic kids as normally as possible. This is important to help them lead a normal life. But coming back to your point, yes, we are all unique. There is nothing wrong with a little quirkiness. The world would be an extremely dull place if we all have the same character and behaviour.
Autism, as I believed, everyone has a little bit of them. Even worse is many equates slightly quirky behaviour with autistic behaviour. This is extremely misinformed, my parents did have that assumption earlier. Can't blame them as they picked it up from old wives tale. As a kid, I know that's how I was pointed fingers on by some people because I liked reading (or doing) something that isn't mainstream. I remembered I was being told off in the library for reading encyclopedias because the rest of them were reading "Christopher Pike" or "R.L.Stine" back then. Recently I remembered one of my acquaintance was on TV (an interview), talking about his sister who is autistic. The parents have to bring her to some traditional medicine doctor because she wasn't really "aligned". Until much later, he described that they had consulted a real doctor instead. You do know most of these scientists, composers, artists and engineers are probably not "aligned" to the rest of the people because they are extremely passionate with their work? If some dude tells me off "you are strange/kook/autistic/eccentric", I might just tell him/her "mind your own business".
Well, autism actually refers to a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, where the child exhibits not just speech delay but other characteristics like inability to communicate, impaired social interaction, no eye contact, repetitive movements, sensory issues - sensitivity to touch, noise, etc. There are kids with delayed speech but they are not autistic, because they do not fit the other criteria. Behaviour alone isn't diagnostic of autism. For example, autistic kids can have OCD, but having OCD does not mean that one is autistic. What you are really referring to is eccentricity. Don't worry. We are ALL eccentric in our own way... and there's nothing to be ashamed about being MORE eccentric than other people.
As you have mentioned, everyone seems to have a bit of all these "disorders": 1.) Some people are very fine-tuned to repetitive movements - they can grind all day long on a piano piece (usually tone-less etudes/studies) or solving a matrix of numbers on a piece of paper. 2.) No eye contact is also often usual, I found out like some people did that and they are okay around their peers. 3.) Apparently social interaction is very subjective. I believe that most of the "impairment" goes to the common "Faux pas" and also doing something (wrong) in a wrong situation. As long as the minor disorders do not impede actual human performance, I don't see there is much of a problem. I read that some people have the "Aspergers syndrome", but this one is more like a high-functioning autism.
Asperger's is now known as high-functioning autism, because they grouped it under the ASD - autism spectrum disorder. Yeah, you are right that there's really no problem if people are just quirky. Most of these issues won't affect performance. So there should be no discrimination as far as work is concerned.
Asperger and/or quirkyness can sometimes get a person into a problem in a workplace or a study group. You watched those Nickelodeon or any TV shows, they clearly depict those problem. Even as young adolescents we often hear of "rugged jocks" or "tough men" making fun of nerds and geeks like all of us. Can't throw that heavy ball in the sport evaluation? Or, bumped into each other during soccer match? Most of us nerds have that problem. For me as a teenager, I often get that "hey, this guy's all weird, can't score much of a Counter-Strike and spent all mornings reading strange programming books!". Me and my other close friend did talk all day about games and electronics, and we got sometimes isolated. However, these isolations are quite short-lived as I was lucky enough to stay with many video-game addicts and slackers in my school. Coming back to Asperger's, again, everyone has a bit of that too. I think it's mandatory for everyone with that not to worry too much about labels, and be proud of the knowledge gained. Asperger people are really smart and bright - maximize the potential.
Nah, I'm away from school for a long time. Just read about it in an old newspaper article I managed to keep.
