I've never heard of autistics having larger head to body ratios and taller heights, so I'm not knowledgeable enough to have much input on that aside from the fact that I and some other autistics I know personally are actually shorter than average :/ I have a tall parent and grandparents and I still ended up small despite being autistic.
Even if autistics are developing mental maturity quicker, they still end up at the same point neurotypicals do, just at a different rate, so in the end it's not necessarily a deficit or boon. At least that's what I've heard/understand. Admittedly, it may not appear this way (to neurotypicals mostly) at times because of things they don't relate to like emotional dysregulation, executive dysfunction, unusually passionate interests, and hypersensitivity to stimuli causing meltdowns/shutdowns, so that's probably why it's often thought the opposite (less mental/emotional maturity and cognitive aptitude) is true. Things like what I just listed don't have to do with neoteny (the retention of childlike traits) because they're even present and often very noticeable when autistics are children and sometimes even as infants/toddlers.
When I'm talking about development, social/language (utilization) development and often physical coordination to some degree is still impaired and (although many disagree) often intellect is unaffected. IQ is often measured by logic, pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, fact processing and recollection speed, and ability to absorb and apply new information to new situations (problem solving), all of these things autistics usually are good with, yet people still think we're not as smart.
The study I linked mentioned they couldn't test on girls, since girls are less likely to have autism and they couldn't find enough candidates.
The things you mentioned do seem like deficits. I mean, I know what I was like at my lows. I went through a lot of things that I would call the setbacks of autism, so when I talk about them it's from a place of experience, not ableism. I for one can say yes, autism has made it necessary to work harder for success.
The biggest fallacy I had during this time, was that the benefits of autism heavily outweighed the setbacks; who cares about social interactions when you have an answer for everything? I was in honors classes getting As while sleeping in class, but outside of homework, tests, and projects I was useless in the classroom.
When I say developmentally delayed, it doesn't literally mean a 14 year old in the body of a 30 year old. There are levels of consciousness, stages of development that define how you interact with the world around you. Those stages and levels are based more on the average development of people, not necessarily exclusive to neuro typical people.
And it's not like you can be stuck at a certain point and not process anything new; there's tons of evidence of people across all spectrums who are able to learn math, cook something different, use different remotes. But if they stopped mentally growing through for examples, Erickson's psychological development, Kohlberg's moral development, Piaget's cognitive development, then they would start seeing the world through a distorted lense after a certain point
I mean you can see this in anyone. Just watch an Adam Sandler movie where he learns a lesson. The lack of development over time leads to a noticeable deficit that negatively impacts your life.
So it's not something like, because as a child you played with dolls and since you stopped developing mentally at that time you'll always play with dolls for life, it's more like, if you never develop certain mental traits, you'll cognitively function as the ascribed mental age equivalent of a person who is in the process of developing those traits.
I wouldn't say intellect is unaffected, but I think most people will have that spark that compels them, and I think that's what you mean when intellect is unaffected.
But it's not enough to pass an IQ test well, those tests are more for capacity than current level. So yes, you could have a savant score 200, but could they survive without direct supervision?
Ah, thank you for explaining and clarifying your use of development, I'm not familiar with Erikson's theory and the others so I'll have to look into them more.
No yeah autism definitely has its downsides, I'm not denying that, my weak points have/had a large impact on my day to day life. I mean certain traits we have may be confused with or taken as signs of intellectual inferiority or immaturity/underdevelopment when they're not really related and it can lead to a lot of misconceptions and bias.
I know what you mean, in high school I called it anxiety whenever I talked to people and felt immensely uncomfortable, and I could see the judgement from others which made it worse.
But now I look at that feeling as an insecurity, and I try to figure why I feel that way, how it might have developed that way, how should I handle it, etc.
I still see judgment and stuff from others when I'm being quirky, but I'm able to look at that more as a deficit on their end than mine.
How would you feel about someone not making eye contact?
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I've never heard of autistics having larger head to body ratios and taller heights, so I'm not knowledgeable enough to have much input on that aside from the fact that I and some other autistics I know personally are actually shorter than average :/ I have a tall parent and grandparents and I still ended up small despite being autistic.
Even if autistics are developing mental maturity quicker, they still end up at the same point neurotypicals do, just at a different rate, so in the end it's not necessarily a deficit or boon. At least that's what I've heard/understand. Admittedly, it may not appear this way (to neurotypicals mostly) at times because of things they don't relate to like emotional dysregulation, executive dysfunction, unusually passionate interests, and hypersensitivity to stimuli causing meltdowns/shutdowns, so that's probably why it's often thought the opposite (less mental/emotional maturity and cognitive aptitude) is true. Things like what I just listed don't have to do with neoteny (the retention of childlike traits) because they're even present and often very noticeable when autistics are children and sometimes even as infants/toddlers.
When I'm talking about development, social/language (utilization) development and often physical coordination to some degree is still impaired and (although many disagree) often intellect is unaffected. IQ is often measured by logic, pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, fact processing and recollection speed, and ability to absorb and apply new information to new situations (problem solving), all of these things autistics usually are good with, yet people still think we're not as smart.
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The study I linked mentioned they couldn't test on girls, since girls are less likely to have autism and they couldn't find enough candidates.
The things you mentioned do seem like deficits. I mean, I know what I was like at my lows. I went through a lot of things that I would call the setbacks of autism, so when I talk about them it's from a place of experience, not ableism. I for one can say yes, autism has made it necessary to work harder for success.
The biggest fallacy I had during this time, was that the benefits of autism heavily outweighed the setbacks; who cares about social interactions when you have an answer for everything? I was in honors classes getting As while sleeping in class, but outside of homework, tests, and projects I was useless in the classroom.
When I say developmentally delayed, it doesn't literally mean a 14 year old in the body of a 30 year old. There are levels of consciousness, stages of development that define how you interact with the world around you. Those stages and levels are based more on the average development of people, not necessarily exclusive to neuro typical people.
And it's not like you can be stuck at a certain point and not process anything new; there's tons of evidence of people across all spectrums who are able to learn math, cook something different, use different remotes. But if they stopped mentally growing through for examples, Erickson's psychological development, Kohlberg's moral development, Piaget's cognitive development, then they would start seeing the world through a distorted lense after a certain point
I mean you can see this in anyone. Just watch an Adam Sandler movie where he learns a lesson. The lack of development over time leads to a noticeable deficit that negatively impacts your life.
So it's not something like, because as a child you played with dolls and since you stopped developing mentally at that time you'll always play with dolls for life, it's more like, if you never develop certain mental traits, you'll cognitively function as the ascribed mental age equivalent of a person who is in the process of developing those traits.
I wouldn't say intellect is unaffected, but I think most people will have that spark that compels them, and I think that's what you mean when intellect is unaffected.
But it's not enough to pass an IQ test well, those tests are more for capacity than current level. So yes, you could have a savant score 200, but could they survive without direct supervision?
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Ah, thank you for explaining and clarifying your use of development, I'm not familiar with Erikson's theory and the others so I'll have to look into them more.
No yeah autism definitely has its downsides, I'm not denying that, my weak points have/had a large impact on my day to day life. I mean certain traits we have may be confused with or taken as signs of intellectual inferiority or immaturity/underdevelopment when they're not really related and it can lead to a lot of misconceptions and bias.
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I know what you mean, in high school I called it anxiety whenever I talked to people and felt immensely uncomfortable, and I could see the judgement from others which made it worse.
But now I look at that feeling as an insecurity, and I try to figure why I feel that way, how it might have developed that way, how should I handle it, etc.
I still see judgment and stuff from others when I'm being quirky, but I'm able to look at that more as a deficit on their end than mine.