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Anyone here autistic and gifted?

If so, what makes you gifted?

Comments

  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    Personally never liked the term "gifted".

    Children who are consider gifted, quite often lead average and sometimes diminished lives becuase of the expectation placed on them. Expecting ASD folk to be "gifted" is soemthign I would push back on, simply becuase it places unrealistic exceptions on an already 

    I do understand when people want to champion talent. If you go it why not flaunt it? But not everyone wants to flaunt it, it might be a personal thing to them.

    I think the fuzzy profile, has wrongly been modelled out as mere statistical error. but this is really a problem of testing methodology and what we happen to consider important as a society.
  • Statest16Statest16 Citizen, Mentor
    Depends on your definition of gifted I suppose.
  • AmityAmity Administrator, Citizen
    edited December 2022
    Nope definately not gifted in the classicly valued/nt defined way.

    More of a hard worker, I accepted in childhood that I was expected to work much much harder than my peers to achieve similar outcomes.

    ...Even though I am a fish, I would be judged on my ability to climb a tree...

    If I seen a "tree climbing goldfish", I might consider it to be gifted😜
  • I've always been very hesitant to use the term 'gifted',but others have used it about me. I can't say I have any great/outstanding skills or talents.I have definite comparative strengths and weaknesses. For the most part the psychiatric profession has been hypercritical towards me because I didn't live up to the expected,indeed demanded, good at x so also good at y. You can add 'bullying related trauma' to that which,apart from one abortive attempt early on, has made me totally avoidant re pursuing further education.

    I used to be a lot more creative when younger than I am now. I'd say that's true for most people, including famous artistic people. Whether creative/gifted or not I've certainly failed to live up to any potential I may have had.

    One of the main things that tipped me over into having an SMI was the 18 months of severe anxiety trying to balance not wanting to let down my parents down vs being acutely aware that I was far from able to cope with the non academic side of college/uni life.

    I'd say that around 80% of my FB friends are from the high IQ communities there. They've been far less inclined to reject me as a person. Indeed it's my own gossamer thin self confidence/esteem/worth that has me thinking I'm not good enough, not any such words from any of them.

    Over the last few years I've done quite well on psychometrician created and/or normed tests.
  • verityverity Administrator, Citizen
    If that helps you and you feel apart of something nothing wrong with that.

    I have sometimes been called smart, but I really don;t like it, I rather focus on my own goals than have others  put me up on a pedestal. I have also fallen shorts, so it is really not hard to convince some of one or the other.

    Genius nearly always is about timing and creativity. Of course capacity is important but without he former and the inclination then that isn't genius. Genius isn't a number.

    However there is no reason to be a genius, there are only a handful per decade, who figure soemthign out truly new.
  • I'm much more competitive against myself, wanting to do better than my previous score regardless as to whether that of someone else is better than mine.  Non proctored, high range tests are more than a little controversial. Nowadays I do my best to just mention scores where a psychometrician has created and/or normed such a  test.
  • HylianHylian Citizen, Mentor
    I am learning disabled and only really was ever "gifted" in my ability to read after the 4th grade, when I had a teacher that I now know identifies as neurodivergent (I don't know if they mean they have ADHD or autism though) help me learn to read properly. Up until then I struggled to read and write, and was grade levels behind my peers. I guess the only other thing that people consider me "gifted" in is my ability to memorize facts about different things, especially scientific subjects.
  • darkcloak_dragondarkcloak_dragon New Member, Member
    The main way I use the adjective "gifted" is to refer to high intelligence. That's the way the word is used in the psychology literature I've read. So yes, I am gifted. I was in a gifted program in elementary school, high score on formally administered IQ tests, university degree in a difficult major despite being learning disabled. Basically my whole life I've been able to do well at anything that interested me if it was based on cognitive ability. I know that some people use the word "gifted" to refer to individual talent but I don't really use it that way. I'd just say a person is talented in some area or has a talent.
  • I think I'd be happier with it being to do with 'high intelligence'(130+ IQ) if there was more than just 'one throw of the dice' involved. There may be many reasons that are non g related why a person may underperform. Some being outwardly noticeable during a proctored test, and some not.
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