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So I had an interesting thing happen recently and I want to share it, because for people not in the know, this is a major insight as to why lots of autistic people get frustrated/fail school, and how psychology often fails creativity. 1/?
I was watching a youtube video on human reasoning and the person in the video was talking about an experiment where they asked people this question? I, the curious dumbass I am, paused the video and tried to figure it out. My first answer was actually, blue. 2/?
A blue crab is a type of crab along the eastern shore of the united states, a blue pine is the name of a pine tree in the himalyan mountains, and a blue sauce, well... it's a blue sauce. There's plenty of that, food coloring exists after all.
This similar kind of reasoning could also work with Yellow and Red, and as the person put an object on screen and said "we gave you a hint earlier" i said "yeah, the answer is probably red".
Apple.
he was holding an apple. 4/?
Apple.
he was holding an apple. 4/?
Now, you might be thinking "why does any of this matter, you just got a different answer on an imaginary youtube question, who cares?"
it matters because in schools, particularly in large public schools, these kinds of question are asked to young kids all the time in tests. 5/?
it matters because in schools, particularly in large public schools, these kinds of question are asked to young kids all the time in tests. 5/?
Particular in standardized tests. What you also might not know is that these sorts of questions are asked when "testing" autistic people for cognitive functioning and to see if we are "progressing" with treatment and so forth (especially in the 90s, 00s, when I was a kid). 6/?
In both of these cases, I would've been marked down "wrong" if I answered anything other than apple. You might have noticed, I was not actually, at least technically, wrong. It might not have been as obvious and "clean" of an answer as apple, but i was right. 7/?
Autistic people as a whole has a system that allows them to "think outside the box" and create novel solutions because to an extent, we weren't born being able to access that "box". We had to learn that the box even exists manually. I was punished for stuff like this, a lot. 8/?
People make a big deal over autistic tantrums and how much of an issue they are, but no one tends to try to ask why they happen. You know why a lot of my young child meltdowns/tantrums happened? Because being told I'm wrong when I'm 100% correct is fucking infuriating. 9/?
I came up with a novel solution to a standard problem, and my reward is being told I'm unintelligent for doing so. And when I complain and try to explain why I'm right, I'm "talking back" now, and I'm a "problem kid".
This is how trauma and perpetual anger happens. 10/?
This is how trauma and perpetual anger happens. 10/?
These sorts of test can determine your future, and how everyone around you perceives you. I had to take "theory of mind" tests and I know for a fact I would give "creative" answers because I knew the obvious ones and wanted to give a more interesting answer. They were wrong. 11/?
So many myths around autism come from things like this. "Experts" in the field assuming their own perspective is inherently superior to anyone elses, and not bothering to figure out why they are different at all. This impacts the person being told their creativity is stupid. 12/?
I cannot tell you the impact of being told my unorthodox answers were wrong for decades had on my health. We don't have words in the english langue for that I don't think. But I hope that now you can start to be critical now of when NT doctors talk about things ND people cant do.
Because a lot of the time they come not from thorough research, but by testing 5 year olds and taking advantage of the fact that they can't fight back and forming their own conclusions regardless.
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