The big saying with ASD is that if you have met one person with Autism you’ve met one person with ASD, or something like that. It presents differently in each person. I believe the specialist asked questions in 4 different functioning areas and he had to rate a certain level in 2 or 3 of the 4-again not certain. My s has a couple areas of focus but does not ramble on about them if people aren’t interested. He seems to speak appropriately, although he himself recognizes he is often blunt with less filter and rather monotone. He can be impatient. It may be worth looking into having a specialist evaluate if just to rule it out. If he has made it to this age without a diagnosis he may just be less obvious. Some on the spectrum have sensitivity issues, some who get overwhelmed may be more likely to throw a fit/“meltdown” or just leave abruptly without telling anyone. There are so many smaller indicators that will present in different ways in different people. Black and white thinking…my s thought everyone needed to go to college. I would try to explain that wasn’t the case and had several examples of people, never pushed him to go if he had a plan otherwise, but he seemed to insist that everyone had to go to college—the alternative, I guess in his mind was that a person who didn’t go to college was a loser maybe? I think over the past few years he may have finally accepted that there are options, but it took awhile.
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