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Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction

Amerantin (former member)
8 months ago

DSM-5 says that to meet the diagnostic criteria for ASD there must be persistent deficits in all three of the areas below.

  1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
  2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
  3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.

So why is it some of us are completely alone and isolated while others seem to have friends, partners and active social lives?

How do people who meet the above criteria achieve this?

Parents
  • 8 months ago

    Some autistic people can see that if they wish to achieve their goals in life that they have to push themselves and do uncomfortable things, others either cannot see this, or have genuine limitations that make it impossible.

    For example, I make apparently 'normal' levels of eye contact, but I do so entirely consciously, I time when and for how long I make eye contact when talking to someone. I do not have a neurotypical unconscious ability to do this, but I compensate for this by using my conscious intellect. As a result the neurotypical majority find me comfortable to talk to, and that helps with making friendly connections. An autistic unwilling or unable to make such a concession to neurotypical norms, would find it much more difficult to make friendly connections. Therefore, you can have two people who are equally autistic, both with eye contact difficulties, producing two very different social outcomes.

  • 8 months ago in reply to Martin
    Martin said:
    both with eye contact difficulties,

    Eye contact is just a non autistic cultural expectation though. This becomes even more obvious when you realise that some other cultures around the world find the social expectation of eye contact offensive or too intimate.

  • 8 months ago in reply to Ausomely Autistic

    I'm not sure that's true.....in my inter-species communication.....eye contact is ABSOLUTELY essential....so cultural expectations do not fall within the remit of other species?!

  • 8 months ago in reply to Uhane

    I'm not really sure how I "get away with it" with humans.  I've done, whatever it is that I've done, for so long now, that it isn't concious........EXCEPT when I do suddenly "link eyes" with someone!  Then it feels too weirdly intimate and creepy most of the time - although context is everything - and I can hide my sense of WTAF sufficiently well that people don't (generally) realise.  I am deemed quite "full on" IRL I think, and that's without meeting peoples eyes.

  • 8 months ago in reply to Number

    yet. it is so easy with animals and so hard with humans. what are your thoughts about that? why is it so different. I just end up looking at (hunan's) their mouth or something.

  • 8 months ago in reply to Number

    that is a very illuminating and refreshing way of looking at it.

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