Autism and Giftedness

[SDRSpark]

Crossbreed posted this article in another thread and, not wanting to derail that thread, I decided to make a new one. Here is the article:

Genius May Be an Abnormality: Educating Students with Asperger's Syndrome, or High Functioning Autism: Articles: Indiana Resource Center for Autism: Indiana University Bloomington

The first paragraph made me cringe - I was identified as "gifted" in school - which basically meant that I was put in special classes where we did brain teasers and puzzles all day. I enjoyed it, but I don't know if it really did anything for me. I was bored to tears with academics (and begged to be allowed to go to VoTech, but VoTech was for kids who "wouldn't succeed in academics" and I was "too smart" and on an "academic track" so I wasn't allowed to go. Screw them, I became a machinist anyway. )

The thing about being labeled "gifted" is that all of my struggles were mostly ignored. This was partly due to school officials, and partly due to my mother, who was almost certainly on the spectrum herself (she was just like me. And I mean JUST like me. Gifted in school, all the same traits and social deficits, everything.) She didn't want me "labeled" or whatever...swore up down and sideways that there was nothing wrong with me because I was just like her. When I was a teenager the school started to take notice that something was very wrong (partly because I had gone to the guidance counselor for help due to depression and suicidal ideation) and she thought they were going to screw things up for me so she fought it. (Years later after finding the RAADS-R test online and taking it, I told her about it. She wanted to take the test too, so I sent her a link and we both scored somewhere in the 150s if I recall. I scored 158 and I think her score was only about 10 points off from mine. I don't hold any of this against her by the way - she was doing the best thing she knew how to do at the time. It was the wrong thing, but it was the best she knew how to do.)

So I was "intellectually gifted" but also a total misfit with unidentified and unmanaged sensory issues (which I didn't come to understand and learn to effectively manage until I was in my late 20s/early 30s) and the lack of acknowledgement or help with the social and sensory issues really did a number on me mentally. (It wasn't for lack of trying on my part either - I didn't understand the sensory issues - because I couldn't possibly know how others experience the world - but I fully understood that I couldn't make friends and had no idea why. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade (I think) I went to the school guidance counselor to ask for help making friends, because everything I tried wasn't working. He gave me some advice, which I attempted to follow but it just didn't work. Looking back, my near constant stimming (and other extremely cringe-worthy but now pretty clearly autistic behavior) was not only a huge red flag but was probably the reason I was almost universally despised by my peers, or if not despised, not well liked either.) So that first paragraph...where the author seems to suggest that labeling "gifted" kids as "autistic" is a bad thing and that they should be given a "positive" label such as "gifted" really strikes a chord with me, but it's not a good chord.

I've spent some time in "former gifted kid" spaces on Facebook and Reddit and I'm seeing a similar theme in all of them - no one talks about the "issues" that come with "giftedness" and a large percentage of people are struggling. The "struggles of gifted individuals" sound an awful lot like ASD to me...to the point that I actually strongly suspect that a certain subset of individuals who would have been diagnosed with autism today are labeled "gifted" instead and have their struggles roundly ignored while their intelligence is put on a pedestal (and along with that high expectations for success in certain areas that the person may not have any interest in whatsoever. I'm sure there are people out there who are still disappointed that I'm not a doctor or a lawyer. )

It's the same frustration a lot of us share where our autistic struggles are passed off as "quirks", "you're just different", "wired differently", "you march to the beat of your own drum" etc. etc. It's clear that throughout the course of my entire life, it was recognized (and celebrated) that I am very, very different from my peers, but my struggles were unrecognized or downplayed (leading to an eventual mental breakdown in my late teens/early 20s when the demands of life got to be TOO MUCH and I couldn't continue to cope with the meager skills and understanding that I had) while my strengths were celebrated.

To this day, of course, my struggles go unrecognized by those with any authority to give me a diagnosis or refer me to someone who can. "You have traits of Asberger's but you're too high functioning for a diagnosis" was one such statement. Then I get pinned with a bunch of other diagnoses that only address part of the issue (and sometimes don't even make any sense.)

I found fascinating, too, how the author described her visual thinking process - almost identical to mine, although I think more in words and language than she does. I also have not only several diagnosed autistic people in my family, but several brilliant individuals (my grandfather was an accomplished physicist).

I graduated from high school in 2006 (so I was evaluated and declared "gifted" back in the 90s, before Asperger's or HFA was known or at least commonly recognized) and I do wonder what it would be like if I were growing up today. Would I still be considered "gifted" or would I be labeled "autistic" and not be allowed to participate in "advanced" things because I would be presumed incapable of it? Or somewhere in between?

 

[FreeDiver]

You just described my life perfectly. I too am a STEM genius, but a retard in just about everything else. It would be nice if I could choose the intellectual attributes I needed for life (Like how you would choose the attributes for a character in a role playing game.) and set them to where I need them to get by in life. A lot of people will tell you that having a strong intellectual power in one area is a good thing, but if you can't apply it because you lack in another area. What good is it to have it. It's like owning a Lamborghini in the 1800's. Ya, it a fast car, But if you don't have any paved roads to drive it on, or gas stations to fill the tank. What good is it? What good is it to have all the money in the world if their are no stores to spend it at? Get my drift? Everything in the world (including intellect) must be in balance in order for it to work right and being at one extreme or the other does not.

 

[Thinx]

Well, I think we would get by better if there was a better understanding in education of the unevenness that's part of ASD giftedness. To the OP I would say, your circumstances were difficult in varied ways and I think that must have been very tough for you.

I actually found being in a Grammar school quite helpful, I wasn't understood, and actually I am so uneven I didn't stand out as gifted, but I found the academic emphasis ok, and generally everyone was interested in doing their studying and I could hide out in the library or in sick bay if I wanted, it was probably a better environment than yours.

I hope there will soon be a more helpful and balanced approach to addressing our needs.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I was called "gifted" in school too. I was invited to a bunch of "Gifted and Talented" summer programmes but never attended any of them, I wasn't interested and my parents thought summer was better spent playing outside. Mainly being highly intelligent just meant that teachers would assume that I'd complete the work with no problems and completely ignored me. To be fair I never did have any difficultly doing any of the work but it did mean that no one noticed the endless bullying and I wasn't identified as dyslexic until I started uni.

 

[Fino]

I was invited to an after-school program for gifted students and I didn't understand why anyone would choose to continue more doing school after already finishing school so I didn't go.

 

[Gerontius]

Part of the 2000s epidemic of "gifted kids" I was homeschooled and do not regret it. But only in university did they figure out I was different, and later they discovered I was just an autistic guy.

 

[Jumpback]

The thing I do is associate things, sometimes figuring out how things are related based on very little information. The way it tended to show up in school was I would always overtest on standardized tests. Entering school early, always being the best on standardized tests where I could reason through which of the 4 or 5 options was the most likely despite always being a good student but never being a top student. So to my school I raised their standing as a top rated school (because schools whatever was based on grade equivalency testing of students on standaradized tests), but maybe even seemed like I wasn’t trying enough since standard academics are much more memorization or things that I am much worse at and less interesting to me than figuring out intuitive puzzles.

But in reality it does nothing except like on here frustrate people that I am “derailing threads” or seem politically incorrect because whatever thing that occurs to me to talk about is usually only mainly only tangentially related. But that’s kind of just the way I work. It becomes very lonely and frustrating because when other people start talking about something like the movie “Toy Story,” they want to talk about the movie “Toy Story,” where I want to talk about computer graphics cards and the history of animation and so on and how all this relates to the movie “Toy Story.”

 

[Transgressivecharm]

The thing I do is associate things, sometimes figuring out how things are related based on very little information. The way it tended to show up in school was I would always overtest on standardized tests. Entering school early, always being the best on standardized tests where I could reason through which of the 4 or 5 options was the most likely despite always being a good student but never being a top student. So to my school I raised their standing as a top rated school (because schools whatever was based on grade equivalency testing of students on standaradized tests), but maybe even seemed like I wasn’t trying enough since standard academics are much more memorization or things that I am much worse at and less interesting to me than figuring out intuitive puzzles.

But in reality it does nothing except like on here frustrate people that I am “derailing threads” or seem politically incorrect because whatever thing that occurs to me to talk about is usually only mainly only tangentially related. But that’s kind of just the way I work. It becomes very lonely and frustrating because when other people start talking about something like the movie “Toy Story,” they want to talk about the movie “Toy Story,” where I want to talk about computer graphics cards and the history of animation and so on and how all this relates to the movie “Toy Story.”

Hi @Jumpback, interesting. Such features appear to converge with those of ADHD ilk. Reminds me of this meme analogizing the obvious contrast going on heh.

 

[Major Tom]

In my opinion, embrace your strengths (congrats on becoming a machinist)! Work on your weaknesses by immersing yourself in challenges, and most importantly, never become a prisoner of your own mind. The past is gone and the future may never come, so enjoy every second you have.

 

[Aspychata]

The only thing l learned in elementary was how l felt l never fitted in. And emotions where always taking up my time. I was very emphatic, and l wanted to read books all the time because they gave me freedom. But l always had little boyfriends even as a young child. Also older female friend. So l guess l didn't feel socially isolated. But school always felt strange, l couldn't understand why l couldn't figure out how to read time.

 

[Crossbreed]

Would I still be considered "gifted" or would I be labeled "autistic" and not be allowed to participate in "advanced" things because I would be presumed incapable of it? Or somewhere in between?

You can be both. That is called "twice exceptional" or 2e in educational circles.