Are all people with Aspergers the same?

Are people with aspergers syndrome missing an instinct?

• I just wanted to know from people with experience whether people who have aspergers syndrome are missing out on an instinct (or something similar to that)...........something everyone else without this syndrome takes for granted. I am referring to the ability to 'read' other people........to understand what they are thinking from their body language and facial expressions.........also the ability to interact with other people normally. I feel other people without aspergers syndrome have this 'instinct' and people with aspergers have missed out on this from birth, almost like being blind in a way. Do you think a person, who has aspergers and normal intelligence, would be able to learn this 'instinct' (for want of a better word) by adulthood? I have aspergers myself..........not sure of the severity....and wanted opinions. Thanks.

• Answer:

  There are several technical terms, it's rather more complex than you describe, and those of us with Asperger's syndrome vary a lot in our abilities in this area, but basically you are on the right track. Thinking in this area can also get in a tangle due to quirks of language and almost-invisible assumptions. "... the ability to interact with other people normally." "Normal" is a word that often comes heavily booby-trapped with a range of values, connotations and yes, assumptions. It is best to carefully disassemble the term whenever encountered, to see if it has suspicious strings attached. Statistically an Olympic athlete is far from normal, compared to the number of people who spend their evenings on the sofa watching TV and drinking beer. In a group of such their behaviour and priorities would stand out. But in an Olympic village the couch potato would look abnormal. Or take someone transposed into a different culture with a strange language: would their ability to interact with other people be normal, (as seen by the majority culture)? But would there be anything wrong with them? "Normal" is tricky, and it isn't always something to aim for, though sometimes it is. On the autistic spectrum we can have difficulty with live interaction and speech, reading body language etc. because we are not noticing what other statistically normal people are, or because we are noticing so much more that we get swamped with information, producing a similar effect for totally the opposite reason. This is why some of us are much better at communicating via e-mails and message-boards, where there is just one channel of information, the text. All the sideband information: facial expression, gesture, tone, body language and appearance, smell, background noise and imagery... all the the things that make live conversation rich and "real" to the majority are stripped out, leaving a beautifully "clean" and uncluttered environment, for us, but for that very reason the same mode can feel bare, impersonal, empty and artificial to anyone in the mainstream who is used to processing all the other cues at the same time. "...would be able to learn..." Yes. Social skills can be learned, pretty much as you would study a foreign language, or culture*. Having a tutor who understands your starting language and culture, however, is a massive advantage In my experience it never develops to the point of being pure instinct: it still requires effort, and tends to leave social interaction etc. tiring: the learned processing is much more a forebrain activity. *it is reported that those with Asperger's visiting Japan from the UK or USA often enjoy it, as they stand out no more, and make no more cultural gaffes, than any other non-Japanese visitor. (All Americans and Britons have Asperger's in Japan? Communication problems, unable to interact in a normal way, taking the language too literally even when the basics are understood, odd habits and obsessions, fussy eating...) I have Asperger's syndrome.