Poll: What's your autism quotient?

MRC_Hans said:
Btw, does somebody know: Isnt there a lot of difference between an autistic type behavior and actually being autist.
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Autism is actually a whole continuum. My autistic son does a lot of things that are considered to be things that autistic children don't do: he'll look you in the eye, spontaneously give you a hug and say he loves you, and so on.

Basically, there are a whole bunch of "autistic tendencies" that everyone has to a degree. You don't need all of them to be autistic, you just need enough of them at a severe enough level to result in a developmental delay.

Further, some kinds of autism appear to go away at puberty. Thankfully, they think my son's kind is one of these.

As for what causes all of this, nobody really knows. It seems like every time they come out with a study showing a correlation between autism and a particular vaccine, or a certain diet the pregnant mother was on, or something like that, the next year another study comes around and refutes it.
 
Just finished reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time", told from the perspective of an autistic boy. Very good indeed - the best book I've read in a while.
 
Shanek- I think what you say applies to many of the "socio-neural" syndromes and to behaviour in general. Human behaviour is a broad continuum. How much of that variation reflects hardware variation is pretty much unknown.
 
I totally agree with those who complained about the test creating false dichotomies. Especially the question about going to a museum or the theater. I mean, it totally depends. I actually really hate watching movies, but really like watching plays and opera. Don't ask me why. So I had a hard time answering the question. Plus, there should have been an option for "both equally" or "no opinion" or something. Some people would rather NOT go to a museum and NOT go to the theater, but would really rather stay home and read a book or go skiing or something. Bad test. Poopy. STill, though, I like the idea of being a social butterfly. Anyone who's scored 10 or below is invited to my house for my V-Day dessert get-together! Come to Syracuse! Really, the weather is lovely! :D
 
LOL Soapy Sam!


MRC_Hans said:
Btw, does somebody know: Isnt there a lot of difference between an autistic type behavior and actually being autist.

Hans
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Well, I kinda tried to explain that a few posts up. Don't know how well I did though. Could explain my low score though. I kinda can pick out what could or could not be more autistic.

Try sticking to answers that indicate you handle change well and some other suggestions I made. It's true for me at least, I prefer change and my day is not in any way scheduled. I hate repetition.

It's still normal to like a routine though.

Those with higher scores aren't anti-social. Have you ever looked up the actual definition of "anti-social". My eyes popped outta my head :)

I'm quite introverted, less so than I used to be, and have learned more social skills, but I managed to score low in spite of that. I do relate to others well though.

Try re-doing the test with those factors in mind if you want to see if that makes a difference.
 
Wildflower,

Perhaps anti-social is the wrong word. It suggests you are
against being social (you and everyone else). Probably a better
word is non-social. You prefer to be on your own rather than with
other people. Or maybe you prefer (or don't mind) people being
around as long as you don't have to interact with them too much.
There are so many possibilities. You might have difficulties
interacting with people. You might just hate small talk or just
can't be bothered with it. You might be in love with yourself to
the exclusion of other people. Perhaps a bit of all of these things.

regards,
BillyJoe
 
30 - and I've noticed before that I can be a tiny bit autistic at times - well, more... aspergic.

It might be better if the test distinguished between "strongly" and "slightly" in the answers.

David
 
As with most other disorders, one of the major factors in a diagnosis of autism is impairment of functioning.

If you can survive in a social situation, adapt to change, and have normal sense experience and motor skills, you're probably fine. No need to let an internet quiz worry you.

I was diagnosed because of severe social deficits, obsessive behavior, and oversensitivity to sound. The obsessive behavior has actually turned out to be a positive thing in some aspects, since I can easily learn things that interest me in-depth. The killer problem that impairs my functioning as an adult is my complete inability to read social cues. Even though I'm college-educated, getting and keeping a job is difficult when I appear aloof and insensitive to others and don't know how to remedy the problem. You would think high intelligence would mitigate the effects, but it really doesn't.

What would really be great is if there were private companies out there to address the difficulties of HFA/Asperger's folks out there. At the moment, the only services out there that I know of are from our favorite nanny state. We all know how effective those are.
 
Autism: 14. I'm a social butterfly. :D
Well, not really, but I enjoy both my alone time and the company of others.

Since I was also a fairly high scoring Major Geek on the geek test, it is clear that my destiny is to become King of the Geeks. Bow before me.
 
Twenty-nine. Yes. Twenty-nine. It's twenty-nine, yeah twenty-nine, twenty-nine. (in my best Rain Man voice).

I was disappointed there was no question like "Do you feel stupid taking internet personality tests and polls?".
 
34. No news to me, really. I'm not sure if davidhorman's "aspergic" is a real word, but I'd definitely use it to describe myself.
 
Well, I tried to be truthful as possible and scored 41... I suspect QuarkMom would be less than 10. Hmmm, just who does QuarkChild take after. Now my younger brother would probably ACE the test but my sister and other brother would have low scores. Sporadic genetics at work. QM first identified some Asperger like behavior in QC in her early teens. This was my first introduction to it. It had never occurred to me that I had part of a 'syndrome'. While I find comfort in knowing that my social ineptitude and other quirks can be catagorized and labeled, the important thing is that most of us find how to use these 'gifts' to our professional / economical / hobbiest advantage. QC has found physics, myself - programming and data analysis. I doubt any of us on this borderline feel deficient. Why would anyone need more than 3 or 4 friends anyway...
 
QuarkDad said:
Why would anyone need more than 3 or 4 friends anyway...
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You have 3 or 4 friends ???

Hmmm.....I think you cheated.

BillyJoe
(31)
 
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