Published on 12, July, 2020
There are so many aspects of autism that you wouldn't know about from reading the diagnostic criteria - which I guess is to be expected because those criteria try to focus on the core or roots of autism whilst our lives are more about the shape of the whole plant and its foliage.
Watching this video for instance made me wonder if my autism lies behind the fact that when out walking with other people, I'm the one who stops to pick up screws from the gutter in case they get into people's tyres. No-one else seems to notice them. I do notice, and sometimes get quite annoyed about the carelessness that leads to the screw being there in the first place!
Then I start to wonder.......I thought that my visual perception was "normal" (obviously, having grown up with it and having no way to compare with anyone else's). But now I know about this feature, and I also know that I have better visual acuity (when optically corrected) than average (we did experiments on it at school and I'm *very* fussy about the prescription in my specs being right) - which again seems to be correlated with autism.
Fascinating............wonder what the world looks like / feels like to "most" people?
I'm done with Christmas Cards said:stops to pick up screws from the gutter in case they get into people's tyres
Me too! I mean, why wouldn't you? Anyone with a vehicle that has pneumatic tyres has experienced the aggravation of getting a puncture from some kind of sharp road detritus.
I think there are several parts to this:
1. People don't see the item in the first place
2. They see it but it doesn't 'register'
3. They see it, think "Oh that could get into someone's tyre..." but don't bother to do anything about it
4. If they reached (3) and walked away, they wouldn't feel compelled to go back & pick it up, potentially even making a special trip to do so.
Often I have walked back to pick up a screw to the consternation of my wife, who then has to wait for me :-)