Published on 12, July, 2020
In another discussion, this has been raised as an area which people on the spectrum find difficult.
I have found references to this problem in every book I have read so far.
As an undiagnosed person, this is one aspect that I find difficult to understand in relation to myself. If I am missing non verbal communications, I cannot be aware that I am. I am able, however, to understand quite a lot of the above, and have assumed so far, that this is just something that I have learned. (I'm another child of the 50s) So why is it such a big issue in books on asd?
People with aspergers are as intelligent, or more so, than nt people. So why would they be unable to learn that a phrase may have more than one meaning. Words with multiple meanings are commonplace, eg wind, cheque/check, love, row, tier/tear
. Do we not learn some of these things with time? I am slow at getting jokes, but get there in the end.
Do other people here, find this to be a major issue? Is Frankie Howard really beyond the comprehansion of those on the spectrum? I don't mean to be rude in asking this, it is just the one thing I have read that really doesn't seam to fit.
I have learnt the meanings to many phrases and do not take everything literally. I am fairly intelligent and read widely, so I have a vast storehouse of acquired information concerning double meanings in my head. It has helped, to an extent, that my dad is a retired English teacher. However I have historically had a propensity to take certain turns of phrase literally, usually the more subtle double meanings as opposed to things like 'it is raining cats and dogs' - I am too logical to fall for that one!. Things I have taken literally in the past include a boy telling me he was going 'to kill' me, when I was 9 years old. I really believed him and spent the night worrying - if someone tells me something with more than one meaning, or they are 'having me on', I am very easily led 'up the garden path'. My dad often tells me things that are not true because he find it amusing to see me taking it so literally, but I can see the funny side!. For example, recently, he told me that some tea pots were going for half price because they had a hole in the side - there was an error at the kiln, he said. I went to look for myself, and noticed some ornamental tea pots with a giant hole in the side, and they were no half price!. The hole was deliberate because they were ornamental, and my mum told me that no one would sell tea pots with a hole in the side because (obviously!) it would not be useable; my powers of critical thinking were blunted by my default reaction of taking what I am told at face value.I had fallen for one of my dad's silly jokes, yet again, but this highlights my tendancy to believe what someone tells me without question.
I struggle more with sarcasm and subtle joking than most metaphors, which can be learnt. However I do struggle to understand certain metaphors and have to spend a lot of energy working them out. I still do not really understand it when people say they do not 'suffer fools gladly', or ' a stitch in time saves nine'. I have looked these sayings up and have a vague understanding of what they mean, but my mind has to work hard to remember what I have learnt.
I can understand basic comedy, but my dad has to act as translator for more complex comedy. Once I understand the innuendo I can laugh as much as the next person, but I am not always good at working comedy out for myself.