this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
642 points (98.2% liked)
Autism
10203 readers
310 users here now
This is a community for people with Autism to be themselves. All neurotypes are welcome.
Community:
Values
- Acceptance
- Openness
- Understanding
- Equality
- Reciprocity
- Mutuality
- Love
Rules
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
- Posts do not need be related to autism, off-topic discussions are allowed. This is a safe space where people with autism can feel comfortable discussing whatever they feel like discussing, as long as it does not violate the standing rules.
- Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
- Do not request donations.
- Be respectful in discussions.
- Do not post misinformation.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- Do not promote Autism Speaks.
- General Lemmy World rules.
- No bots. Humans only.
Encouraged
- Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
- Funny memes.
- Respectful venting.
- Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions regarding autism.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our community's values.
- Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
- Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it.
.
Helpful Resources
- Are you seeking education, support groups, and more? Take a look at our list of helpful resources.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Having a learning disability and having an advanced academic ability in one or more subjects are not mutually exclusive. There are lots of different types of learning disabilities, and most don't automatically make someone less capable, it just may mean you process information differently
Or as my girlfriend likes to describe it, we have "spiky skills." That is, very high in some areas, and very low in other areas.
I work with a six year old who's still learning the most basic skills (like following one-step directions, such as "put your backpack in your cubby"), but he can spell out the full Latin names of various obscure fruits and vegetables from memory in order to find pictures of them online. Although he still has a long way to go with communication skills (he doesn't speak and only recently acquired an AAC device), it's clear he knows a lot more than would be apparent from the outside. Classic "spiky skills."
I have described "spiky", as imagine a sound board, with those up and down sliding switches. Most people have all of their switches close to the middle of the scale, just some a bit higher, and some a bit lower. But autistic people tend to have many of those switches turned either fully up, or fully down, and of course completely randomly as well.
Interestingly, this can also describe our sensory experiences/sensory filters. Some of us have brains that filter out speech, to the point that we don’t hear our own names being called. Others (like myself) have so little filter for speech sounds that we can’t even hear our own thoughts if someone else is talking in the same room. Or we may not experience pain from something that would cause an NT pain, but things that NTs experience as pleasurable might be painful to us. (For me, that’s tickling. I can’t stand being tickled. Or ASMR, it makes me irrationally angry.)
Yes, it can apply to so many things! I too have some very random traits taken to the extreme as well, not only skills or sensory stuff. For example I severely lack in the basic ability to regulate myself just in general; I will either give 100% in everything I do (face-to-face interactions with others included), or I will do something only barely or not at all.