Do people with ASD process information slower than other peo

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I am male and 17 with ASD and I don't know why but I have a hard time processing information when I am at school for some reason. I get way to distracted and I always feel like my brain is frozen when I am trying to work. I have a hard time focusing and I also have a very active imagination throughout the day so when I am bored I daydream about a video game or something that I have seen throughout the day and I can't seem to focus on the task at hand and many people get frustrated at me because of this. I have been called "Slow" or "Idiot" many times by people sometimes when I don't respond to people in time quick enough they will usually say "Dude, you are so slow" or "Dude you're an idiot" or "I'm smarter than you" I always get comments like these lately and it has only been happening this year and I don't know why people are saying things like this. Sometimes I say like the most stupidest things to poeple when I think what I am saying things I think are clever they would say to me "Dude, are you like ret*d or something!?" and every time people would say things like this to me I will always get offended by other people when they try to talk to me. I also seem to frustrate the people who I work with like I will want to do a job one way and people are always telling me that I am doing the project wrong. I would be like half way done and someone will come up to me usually another student and they will say to me "Dude you got this so wrong!! Here let me fix it." and I hate it when people show me a new way to fix things and it really bothers me. I also seem to frustrate the teachers to like I will always want to do things my way and when the teachers look at my work they keep telling me I am doing the project wrong. I don't know why I am acting so stupid this year but I guess I am just not focused. I for some reason am thinking like a snail this year I can't seem to think quick enough. I get a lot of Face palm reactions and a lot of people going "Dude, Oh my god your so slow!! !" and it usually bothers me. I would like to know is this normal ASD/AS behavior? Because lately this year I seem to act like this. I also dose off to which may be a part of my problems. Sorry if I keep posting similar post like this this is just a problem that I am having right now. But am I the only one like this?

I think I remember reading a post very similar to this, but no you are not alone. But nobody thinks I'm stupid for it. I don't know how many times I've been told I'm a genius by my classmates when they see what I've done.

Yeah sometimes I make post that I have made before so I ask it again because it gets dead so I want to revive it.

I personally often wonder about this when it comes to myself. There was a time a few years ago when I was once coined "simple-minded". It bothered me a lot at first (and by a lot I mean a lot, heh), but then I thought about it more and realized that it wasn't true--I can process information and even analyze complex ideas and such just fine; it just takes me a while to go about doing this. So, yes--I don't believe I'm "simple-minded"; I believe I'm "slow-minded". I've come to terms with this over the past few years and I realize that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I'm just a late bloomer in almost everything I do....

I say don't let what others say get to you. Yeah, that's definitely easier said than done, but I have come up with a few mental techniques to help myself feel better when my self-esteem threatens to drop completely. Sometimes when I feel down and inadequate in terms of intelligence, I force myself to go through steps of appreciation for what I can do. I think about the simplest things--I know what is being said when people talk to me, and I can process it, even if it may take me a little bit more time than other people. I can talk and walk and make it through each day pretty fine, and a lot of the time this realization has worked miracles for my self-esteem.

You're most certainly not "stupid"...like you said, you just do things in different ways. Something else I've learned to do for myself is to completely ignore the terms "better" or "worse" when it comes to other people. No one is better or worse than anyone else--we're all just different, and that is absolutely fine....

Yeah people always say to me that I am a little slow. I wonder if it is apart of the ASD thing but I don't know. I have such a struggle with following simple directions and I am always getting everything wrong and people are always correcting my work when I am doing something wrong. I get people saying to me that I am slow or that I am an idiot or something and I wonder if it is just me actually being Mentally challenged or if I am just lazy or in my own little world.

I think when an autistic is a slow learner then his comprehension is going up and he is studying things in greater depth which takes more time. A fast learner may seem more desirable but he is learning things a with a lot more superficiality and relies more on just memorizing information rather than an in depth understanding. Unfortunately the educational system only tests for the rapidity of learning and the ability to memorize information rather than true imaginative skills and inventions.

These are generalizations and may not hold true for many individuals.

There is a difference between learning something quickly and learning something superficially. Learning something superficially may make it appear that you are learning faster, but someone who learns faster is probably not also learning things superficially.

Well I have been called a slow learner and stupid. Once I was at a job and I was cutting rafters for roofs and I thought I was pretty good at it but this NT showed up and was able to do the job without thinking and made me feel stupid. But I realized that if it were a really complicated roof, something 4 dimensional , I would probably be able to beat him but I never get the chance because architects are so conservative in their designs.

Well, I do not at all think "slow learner" equals stupid. I just mean people can be careless at any speed. A slow learner could outperform a fast learner or vice versa. You are right that people equate fast to intelligent, I am just saying that fast doesn't always mean learning poorly.

I find all these characteristics apply to me and result in the appearance of slowness:

1, I need silence/calmness to concentrate and hate any interruption/noises/distraction (e.g., ringing phone, humming, etc.).
2. Better at long-term memory than short-term memory so I can appear slow especially because I have trouble finding the right words during a verbal explanation/conversation.
3. I find I'm better at theory than practical ("hands-on") stuff.
4. Find it easier to explain by writing than by conversation, because I can't verbalize stuff as the visual part of writing it down does not exist with conversation, so I can't look back to it and I sometimes get lost.
5. Can only concentrate on a single activity at a time but most situations involve multi-tasking which makes it difficult as I feel lost like a "deer in headlights". I can't seem to filter out all the information so I prefer to handle it a little at a time which makes me appear slow. In reality I'm not slow, it's just more information is hitting me that a lot of people seem to filter out. Thinking quickly is s good for making quick decisions for everyday practical stuff but a disadvantage in decisions requiring deeper thoughts, I think. So I guess my slowness has advantages in areas like school.

Last edited by Kon on 19 Apr 2011, 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, when I was at a Community College back in 2004, I was told to go to the DSPS center on campus. I was told they may be able to help me since I had a VERY hard time taking notes (Algebra) at the same time as listening to my instructor. It was like I couldn't do the same thing at once. I could write, but not look at her. I could listen and look at her, but not write. If I tried, my writing came out like chicken strach. I couldn't even read my own notes it was so bad. I went to the DSPS center and I was told that I have a learning disability. I asked which one. I told they the school does not know - the only thing that was clear was the my "processing center" was very slow. I was told that I have a much higher IQ and "smarter" than people my age (I was 29 at the time) but I just processed information and data more slowly and this is why I had issues with grasping Algebra.

I later learned when I transfered to University of Redlands (I was a business major) that I had to genearlize everything and I had to "See the big picture" and get "concepts" which - at first - was very hard for me at UofR. I had to learn the hard way.

I'd say that this is a VERY common feature of AS. It's like we have more connections (highways) in our brains but the cars are moving slower from point A to point B. Whereas others (NT's) have less highways - but the cars are moving much faster. I've always been the last to "Get" a joke . . .and in order for me to tell if someone is joking with me (pulling my leg), I have to study him or her for year . . .and yes. . .sometimes, I STILL can't tell when my best friend is joking with me. . . .and I've known her for 19 years!

Don't let the others tell you that you are stupid. Don't let that bother you. Find something you love to do and learn it. . .we all have our speical gifts. . .

With me it's more that people go "Ok, you need any help wi.. oh wow, you're done? Already? On this? That I didn't explain yet. Ooookay" and then a few hours later "What, what do you mean you need help with that part? You did that other much more complicated one with no problems. You're messing with me. Nice try dude". It's like, since I can grasp the complex stuff immediately, no one believes it's the simple stuff (simple to them) that will completely stump me. It makes it really hard to get help. Especially since if I even can get them to see that I need help with the simple stuff, even though I just did something they think of as highly complex, they'll assume I can't do the complicated stuff any more. Which just leads to frustrated cries of "Dude, seriously, you forgot I could do that in the 30 mins since I, y'know, did it?! Memory challenged much?" coming from me.

I can relate to everything you said about your brain. I did that a lot in school and I cannot listen for long periods of time.

I'm one of those people who take forever to "get there" but do "arrive", eventually. And when I do, I've surpassed everyone else.

People have called me "slow", "ret*d", "dumb", all kinds of names. But it seems that the people who do that are always the ones who aren't so intelligent themselves.

This happens to me all the time, it is especially embarrasing in the college class setting...when I go to say something and then speak to queitly or if I am half way through and lose track of what I am saying. But if people want to assume I am an idot they can go right ahead, I do not care anymore.

I can never understand this whole neurotypical attitude that before Einstein was a slow learner and a ret*d because he had only a C grade point average and that he should be kicked out of college and that he deserved to be fired and discriminated against at his work but afterward Einstein was this great genius.