Published on 12, July, 2020
The stereotyped autistic person is obsessed with maths, science, technology, but I wondered if there is another type who is obsessed with words, correcting word mistakes, dictionaries, learning new words etc. A Word Nerd.
I am a proud Word Nerd, I have zero interest or skills in maths, science, technology. It is a reason I didn't even consider I was autistic until I was in my 40s/50s- I wasn't a computer geek, so I couldn't be autistic, could I?
What do you think?
Definitely! I think that the problem is that both the diagnostic criteria and the general perception of autism is based on stereotypes, often involving being gifted in maths or working in Silicon Valley. This might very well have led to people being missed and/or not realising that they're autistic until much later in life.
I have always been fond of words, beginning very early in life and at school the complaint that I sounded as though I'd "swallowed a dictionary" was often levelled against me (by other pupils,that is. Obviously my English teachers thought I was great!). My sons likewise and I simply thought they took after me in that regard.
Then, a couple of years ago, I came across the word "hyperlexia". Moreover, I discovered that this was often associated with autism. Hmm... Not entirely happy about this. I thought I had a way with words, a gift, a talent. But apparently I have a condition called "hyperlexia"!
Oh well, I guess it can be both. :)
I agree, stereotypes are used too much and people have surely been missed due to that.
At school I was a 'posh snob' because I spoke correctly and knew a lot of words. Years ago that used to be a good thing didn't it? Educating yourself? ♀️
I've heard of hyperlexia, remind me what it is again? It's good for the job of proofreading anyway, lol.
Yes, i was a snob too, apparently. And this continued into the workplace. A colleague once confessed to me that she saw and overheard me talking to a receptionist when I came in for interview and went back to her office and said, "I hope they don't offer the job to that posh woman!" (NB I come from a very impoverished background)
I think there are different types of hyperlexia but in my family we seem to learn to speak early, adopt an adult vocabulary (getting puzzled at "baby talk" and wondering why adults are speaking that way) and then use a much wider vocabulary than our peers. When he first went to nursery, for example, my son was using whole sentences while his peer group only had a handful of words. At the time we thought this was why he related better to the nursery staff but much later on we became aware that this can be typical of some autistic children.
A story from my parents from when I was waiting with them at the bus stop when I was very young (preschool at least). An elderly neighbour started talking to me about the "bonny blue flowers" in a garden across the road and I said, "Yes. They're delphiniums." :)
And from me with my son, aged around 3 or 4, at a pantomime. Lots of encouragement for the audience to clap and join in. So my son, apparently quite alarmed by this, said, "I don't like audience participation!"
Thanks for the explanation! My husband is dyslexic, my hyperlexia has cancelled that out because our daughter shows no signs of dyslexia whatsoever!
There is SUCH prejudice about being 'posh' or a 'snob' in Britain. Those words seem to be used interchangeably, but obviously they have different meanings.
It's sad. Not long ago people tried to educate and better themselves. e.g. my granddad. Now people seem to be trying their best to be as uneducated, common and ignorant as possible. It's a race to the bottom...
I don't know what I was like when I was young, my mum just said I talked a lot. My daughter has always used long words, luckily her teachers have been delighted, not judgemental.
That's cute about you with the delphiniums!