I’ve not been diagnosed but I suspect that I fall in some where under the umbrella spectrum. Our oldest son has infantile Autism, there’s something “odd” about our middle son and he’s definitely nerdy but he’s in a regular class in a regular school, our youngest son has ADHD. All of them score very high on some areas of IQ tests designed for their age group and have a high average score on these tests. The oldest and the youngest had their tests adjusted for their suspected disabilities (weren’t diagnosed at time of testing).
My husband and I are “odd” and nerdy. When the psychologist needed to ask additional questions reg. family history and about ourselves, I couldn’t resist correcting her spelling error or wrong use of terms and words (pedantic) and when she asked my husband about his field of work, he endeavored on a half hour long monologue until I kicked his ankle. In both cases, we were embarrassed by the other one’s behavior, but we couldn’t individually see that our own behavior was inappropriate.
We are strange and difficult to get along with according to even our closest relatives and much has been made of my asocial nature all of my life. I scored 35 on the AQ test. I’ve never formally had my IQ tested but the less math, the higher the score. Lots of math questions; score as low as 67-72, only pattern and spatial; score average 96- 101, mainly language and problem solving situation questions not involving math; 166-172.
My husband and I both excelled in academics from an early age. He studied in a supportive environment, has a good education and a successful career. I didn’t, couldn’t understand what my problem was in life, tried to flea...whatever, so now I have an 8th grade language comprehension in my first language and around a 12th grade(some college) comprehension in English. My verbal communication skills are truly terrible in any language! My grammar is often backward or just “odd” (I know, I’ve made repetitive use of that word and possibly used it incorrectly) and in chit-chat situations or social use of language, my vocabulary can appear limited and my social behavior can appear aggressive and awkward (I fill too much in a room or blend in with the wallpaper). Given time/shown patience or being allowed to communicate in writing either improves my ability to communicate or perhaps it just gives others something more tangible to aid them in understand me?!
On a scale of ordinary success criteria, I’m a complete failure! I recognize many aspects of my oldest son’s infantile autism and ADHD in myself, though I don’t squirm in a seat, don’t get in to fights but I do “suffer” from hyper speech. It’s like imagining my brain is a bottle turned upside down. My thoughts, information and process all have the space they need in my brain, but my brain can’t figure out what to “pour” out first and in which order so either everything gets stuck or EVERYTHING pours out in one massive splash and nothing makes sense to anyone else and even I lose track once it’s out of my mouth or when it comes to executing plans.
I’m very good at solving other people’s problems though:-)
I forgot to add that I’m very good at putting things in to order, structuring, organizing but I can’t maintain it. On 6 out of 7 days it looks like my whole life is one big mess and spinning out of control. For about 1 hour, 1 day a week, I look like I’ve got my stuff together.