Could a subsection of this forum be dedicated to the issue of relationships with regard to young people on the spectrum. I know this is a difficult issue for puiblic discussion.
However I am perplexed at how little is done to address this. If a thread does touch on the subject it dries up very quickly.
The problems of social interaction, particularly non-verbal social communication, are fundamental to AS. Relationships tend to rely more on non-verbal communication. Moreover peer discussion, perhaps because everyone is shy about using conventional language, revolves around inference, inuendo, metaphor and non-verbal communication.
As a result young people on the spectrum are denied the normal means of finding out from their peer group, and cannot share in this. This inevitably leads to confusion and misunderstanding.
Everyone talks on here about doing everything they can for their AS teenagers, but relationships are going to be one of the most fundamental social barriers they will be faced with as adults, so why should it be a taboo subject. In contrast we have frequent dialogue about marriage difficulties and break-ups, but no-one seems to connect this with getting the right advice early.
I appreciate this would be difficult to run in a public forum, and might have to be done on a special discussion board only accessible to registered users, and perhaps with more moderator intervention, and I appreciate resources are an issue.
But I remain puzzled nevertheless why something so important is left as - taboo subject - can't handle this.
