I'm not autistic but I have something called obsessive compulsive personality disorder. It shares many of the same traits as the ASDs (notably, obsessional interests and perseveration, rigid/logical/rules-based/black-while thinking, and social problems (though mainly due to rigidity and the behavioral expectations placed on others rather than not reading people and perhaps communication differences).
It really is a lot like very high functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome - so I think it just depends on where the line is drawin between ASD and other traits higher up the continuum. Clearly, though, all of my kids have inherited these traits - my daughters are however more affected than myself or my son, and thus have more problems. I think it has to be related. One theory of mine is that the girl's rigid thinking and obsessional interests are to their detriment because they become so preoccupied with rules, order, and their interests, that they have missed out on much of the ambient social environment that typical children are learning from all the time and that this is why they became delayed.
However, one has to be mindful that the ASDs (or autistic disorder, at least) are serious developmental disorders while folks like me, though sharing traits that are similar, are not profoundly affected, and to view folks like me (and your husband and many other very high functioning people who have autistic traits) as 'on the spectrum' promotes, in my opinion, a skewed perspective of a serious disorder. JMHO.
The good news is that your husband will have insights into your son that others may not. Oh, and people like us make good engineers and fine craftsman, though sometimes the tendency to want to do things "right" rather than do things expeditiously gets in the way of real-world expectations.
Edited to add - I see evidence of this rigid thinking and obsessional interest in lots of ASD parents. You will notice as you travel down this road, that many parents of autistic children have very strong views and inflexible belief systems and personalities, and seem to have more viscous disputes and infighting than parents of children with other disabilities. Go to any forum dealing with parents of autistic children, and you'll see some amazingly viscious disputes and extremely polarized views. Not so much here - this is one of the "nicer" autism boards - at least for one that isn't just an echo chamber for one belief system or another.
Thank you for the reply!!
Thats what i was thinking - maybe he got a different form. It makes me think even more in the case of my DS he was born with it.
I'm far from the expert, but from what I've seen since I've been on this forum, ASD traits can run in families however it can manifest itself completely differently in each person. There are many folks on this board with more than 1 child on the spectrum, and I'm sure many of them will chime in here. From reading their posts, their kids are all affected very differently from each other. Since all people with ASD are all so unique, it's not suprising to me that your son is presenting very differently than your dh.
Hello everyone!
Im sure this has been discussed but Im so worried what the future holds for my 3 year old DS in terms of his delays....
My hubby took one of the adult tests listed and scored 119/200 for aspie and 75/200 for NT. It looks like he does carry autistic traits.
He is very smart and is successful at work but does struggle in social situations, has hard time relating to people.
I dont think my hubby had severe speech delay and my DS does - could DS have a different form ?? If hubby has traits that he passed to my son, could he be affected differently?
I hope im not confusing anyone, just wondering you opinion on this??
Hi Fred -
Thanks and funny enough, DH is an engineer!!!
I totally agree with your thrid paragrah.... If Dh has some traits, I cant just think that DS is going to be fine. We are both taking this serious and trying to do everything we can....but I think in certain ways Dh can relate to what our boy is going thorugh...