Autism and Aspergers Conference with Tony Attwood

series of articles; part I, part II and part III

Oh... I just remembered why I don't like Tony Attwood :-D

"A child with this type of personality talks like an adult, thinks like an adult and wants to be treated like an adult. However, the reciprocity is missing as the child usually has poor listening skills and lacks the ability to give a narrative that is succinct or interesting to the listener."

Hmm... And most adults have poor child listening skills. Most children lack the ability to give a narrative that is succint or interesting to the listener, and frankly, a lot of adults too. I think it's unfair to speak of children with Asperger's in this manner.

"The main emotional issues Asperger saw were anxiety, sadness and anger management. Their emotions tend to be volatile, and there is a great tendency to worry and catastrophize situations."

This is a good definition of a child who has been emotionally abused... In me this became a problem only after 5 years of being bullied every day. Before I became a teenager, I was the most stabile and happy child. Now, after 30 years of emotional abuse, I have panic anxiety disorder, social phobia, depression and problems with anger management, volatile emotions, "temper tantrums" and "a great tendency to worry and catastrophize situations".

"Empathy isn’t missing but tends to be immature due to a difficulty in reading signals such as gestures and facial expressions. They can be sensitive to the emotional atmosphere, though, even when they can’t translate into words what they are sensing."

By my experience most aspies are very empathethic. Most Aspies won't watch news, because we feel too much with the people in the news, and it's usually bad news. People with Asperger's try to get out when people are being emotional, because they can't handle their own emotions. We mirror. We feel what you feel, and because most neuronormal people are liars, and say "nothing's wrong", when we KNOW something is wrong, the situation becomes unbearable.
Also, most neuronormal people say one thing with their words, and another with their faces and bodies.
Besides, there is no standard in how to relate to people's emotions. People with Asperger's tend to be quite matematic with their thought process. When the number of variables and unknown factors grow too impractical to handle, we don't bother trying to solve the problem. So, when people are going through emotions, we let them, and go about our own business. Now, codependent people tend to see this as selfish and uncaring...

"Motor clumsiness is common and, in the classroom, can translate to handwriting issues. Dr. Attwood made the point that practice doesn’t make perfect in this case because each handwritten word has its own formation and requires a significant amount of effort. The answer is not practice, but using a keyboard instead."

Have these children with Asperger's been observed without their knowing they are being observed, in an environment they feel comfortable in? "Clumsiness" is a normal Asperger's reaction on stress and confusion.

Rethinking Autism: Implications of Sensory and Movement Differences

"Sensory hypersensitivity is also common and what is different from typical children is the fact that they usually don’t habituate to sounds or other input, even over time. Again, practice does not make perfect."

MOST ASPIES ARE HIGHLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE WITH AMYGDALA THAT IS 10-15% LARGER THAN WITH NORMAL PEOPLE!!!
How the hell could anyone PRACTICE to "habituate" to sounds or other input with that kind of circumstances!