autistic adult or autistic child...........?

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Age1600
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20 Apr 2009, 10:27 pm

autistic adult or autistic child, which one is more noticeable?

ive been wondering what everybody thinks... i've seen kids flap, screech, walk on their tippy toes, be shy, be violent, misbehave every way you can think of, rock, scream, climb on things, and be neurotypical. But if you see an adult that flaps, screeches, walks on their tippy toes, is very shy, violent, misbehaves every way you can think of, rocks, screams, climbs on things, usually that adult isn't neurotypical or something else is seriously going wrong. Or if a child isn't speaking yet, is in diapers, not communicating,,, people try to help that child, and sorta have more empathy and care for a child, but if an adult isnt speaking yet, is in diapers, not communicating,,, people act like that adult is severely handicapped, sorta pitys them more.

This is just what ive seen, i get some pity(like pity looks like people give me that sorta omgosh thats just terrible somebody lives like that or poor girl will never be able to do anything) and some of that awww lets pat her on the had and tickle her as we bring our voices high pitched and give her big high fives calling her a big girl even tho she is 24 yrs old :lol: :roll: . So i get both sides, but im wondering what everybody thinks, would you consider an adult autistic more noticeable and disabling, or consider a child autistic more noticeable and disabling and... why?


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20 Apr 2009, 10:58 pm

I would say autistic children are more noticeable, adults would have have time to learn to adapt.


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Danielismyname
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20 Apr 2009, 11:41 pm

Adults.

Even the mildest of cases look quite atypical in behaviour. No one expects a child to make appropriate eye contact for example, or to talk in an appropriate socially and emotionally way.



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21 Apr 2009, 1:14 am

Children, hands down.

Because with all the awareness campaigns for kids everyone is looking for them. There is nowhere near as much media exposure-- and even if there was, cute kids make a better story.



some1
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21 Apr 2009, 12:17 pm

As an adult, one can learn how to hide the most obvious traits of autism. I can pretend to be like neurotipicals and succeed as long as things stay on the everyday job related part and people don't get too personal to me. It's true, people that know me more personally, notice there's something a bit "strange" about me.

For children autism is more obvious, they behave naturally and haven't learnt coping techniques.



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21 Apr 2009, 12:46 pm

I'd say it's more noticable in children but more "disabling" in adults. Because a child doesn't have as much pressure to act normal but an adult has alot more hard work to do because of living independantly or things like that.


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21 Apr 2009, 3:55 pm

am think as an adult its probably more obvious to the public,but can only speak of own experience,as the
spectrum varies.

as a child/teen,ignorants expected mum and dad to smack the behavior,the meltdowns,the lack of communication and interaction out of am-as far as they were concerned it was all disruptive bad behavior,everyone just wants to smack the little sods that run around causing mayhem dont they without thinking there might be something going on in the child that makes them that way,am admit to this though due to the unbearable overload from their voices and noise.

As an adult,it's different,they see the adult body and know it's not a tantrum over a smacked arse,there's something else going on.
this has it's own set of problems as am usually treated as invisible,get forced help and the classic 'pat on the head strength' pity by proxy [they do it all through the support staff who are with am],some have stopped their cars to shout if staff needed any help or the police phoned when am have been having an incident or a meltdown on the street.
some also think am deaf as well due to signing and wearing ear defenders-since when do they look like hearing aids? bright yellow huge things,that look like they've been stolen from an airport site.

sales people also think because am autistic and communicatively impaired,they can talk any old crap to the support staff am with and they'll buy whatever it is and get them easy comission,support staff may be in charge of the money but it isnt theirs.
The only good thing that comes out of being obvious as an adult,is are not seen as a threat by the locals or police [at least not by greater manchester police anyway].


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22 Apr 2009, 4:50 am

Probably as an adult, as when you are a child you can expect them all to behave differently, but as an adult I think they expect you to act more "normal" and more social and less shy etc.


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22 Apr 2009, 10:16 am

From my experience with working together with children with several impairments people who do not spent extensive time with children who exhibit stereotypes 24/7, who talk in 2-3 word sentences at best or who have severe sensory processing deficits of most senses do not notice any of that if they interact with the child for a couple of weeks even.

If you hear the same about teens or adults people are all on about that, really noticing it in minutes.


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