Asperger Syndrome Support Group
Asperger syndrome - also referred to as Asperger's syndrome, Asperger's, Aspergers or just AS - is one of five neurobiological pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and is characterized by deficiencies in social and communication skills, normal to above normal intelligence, and standard language development.
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I just read a book that gave me a lot of insight into both neurotypical ways of thinking/behaving and my own. The author (autistic) divides various patterns into organized categories and explains them so that a person with a literal, detail oriented mind can better understand.
The book is "A Field Guide to Earthlings: An autistic/Asperger view of neurotypical behavior" by Ian Ford.
Where this book helped me most was explaining why my attempts at direct and meaningful communication were often poorly received. It turns out that "small talk" is a lot more important socially than I ever imagined. I always thought of it as some kind of space filler between people who used it as a substitute for meaningful conversation. Now I understand that it has whole layers of significance that I was completely missing.
I'd like to ask, what are other's experiences with communicating? Do you find yourself feeling like there's some foreign language you haven't learned or wonder why people will appear to be talking about one thing when the real conversation is happening non-verbally? What are your experiences and thoughts?
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The book is "A Field Guide to Earthlings: An autistic/Asperger view of neurotypical behavior" by Ian Ford.
Where this book helped me most was explaining why my attempts at direct and meaningful communication were often poorly received. It turns out that "small talk" is a lot more important socially than I ever imagined. I always thought of it as some kind of space filler between people who used it as a substitute for meaningful conversation. Now I understand that it has whole layers of significance that I was completely missing.
I'd like to ask, what are other's experiences with communicating? Do you find yourself feeling like there's some foreign language you haven't learned or wonder why people will appear to be talking about one thing when the real conversation is happening non-verbally? What are your experiences and thoughts?
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Guess I overcorrected, huh?
It can be learnt by observation and attention and it definately works.
It has the advantages that different people, different cultures and different situations have different "rules" for length and type of gaze.
agree that eye contact rules vary place to place
watch the persons facial expressions for their reactions when in conversations