Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction

I think you've miss quoted the DSM-5? That's only a list of examples of catagory A I think. In order to diagnose with ASD catagories A through E all need to be satisfies.

The general text for catagory A is "A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, see text):" And below it the list you quote.

So yes all autistic people have issues with their social skills but they aren't forced to fit with those 3 examples. It is posible to have good relationships with poor social skills if your friends learn to tolerate you being really blunt and ocasionaly socially inappropreat. Maybe some people are just so interesting, witty or atractive that people don't care that they don't make eye contact and are always getting the wrong end of the stick, speaking out of turn or saying the wrong thing. etc.

Peter said:

So yes all autistic people have issues with their social skills

No I don’t agree, please don’t generalise about an entire community. I don’t have ‘issues’ with socialising, I socialise and communicate differently as do all autistics.

The only reason why we are described as having issues with socialising is because there are more neurotypical people than us! We are purely described like this because we are a minority group-

I disagree. In so far as there is a set of skills neurotyicals typically have called social skills we (autistic people) have deficits in those skills. Eye contact is a good example. Eye contact is difrent between cultures. In asia some cultures don't make much eye contact. Neurotyical people adapt naturaly to that as they aclimatise to the culture ... we don't, or at least it's not natural for us, we don't do it without realising usually.

There is a little circuit in their head that is scaning others behavior subconsciously and prompting them to copy it ... and in our heads that circuit doesn't work. That's both freeing and limiting. Our behaviour is more our own that others, but we are less able to predict and adapt to others behavior.

We are more able to take the paths they can't because they are constrained to follow the crowed ... but we are at risk of getting trampeled by that crowed.

Peter said:

Oh absolutly but that mostly wouldn't be called social skills. Body doubeling is more a coping stratergy for poor executive function / focus. Neurotyicals also benifit from it just not as much. I mean isn't that what offices are? Aren't info dumps just mini lectures? Just people aren't used to adsorbing information that way in a small group. And paralel play happens every weekend in your city center, it's called window shoping. Or cafes. Why go to a coffee shop when your microwave can make a coffee at home? It's paralel play. comfort from spending lessure time in proximity to others. We are better at this but it isn't really a social skill. These are more lessure / learning / working skills.

Yes I absolutely agree, but that doesn't mean that one way of being is better than the other. Some of your points about offices and infodumping make logical sense.

This image describes my point perfectly:

Every human has strengths and weaknesses related to their neurology. That's the beauty of neurodiversity!

Ausomely Autistic said:

Equally, you could also argue that neurotypical individuals have ‘deficits’ in autistic social communication styles. For example, they use weird hints instead of using direct and honest communication. Neurotypical people are not naturally good at parallel play, body doubling or info dumping.

Oh absolutly but that mostly wouldn't be called social skills. Body doubeling is more a coping stratergy for poor executive function / focus. Neurotyicals also benifit from it just not as much. I mean isn't that what offices are? Aren't info dumps just mini lectures? Just people aren't used to adsorbing information that way in a small group. And paralel play happens every weekend in your city center, it's called window shoping. Or cafes. Why go to a coffee shop when your microwave can make a coffee at home? It's paralel play. comfort from spending lessure time in proximity to others. We are better at this but it isn't really a social skill. These are more lessure / learning / working skills.

I think its nessicery to accept being better at something some times means you will be worse at others.

Amerantin (former member) said:

But the simple harsh reality is we live in a world where the vast majority of people are neurotypical.

Absolutely! This is true, but that doesn’t mean the way we communicate is wrong or deficient.

Amerantin (former member) said:

But the simple harsh reality is we live in a world where the vast majority of people are neurotypical.

Absolutely! This is true, but that doesn’t mean the way we communicate is wrong or deficient.