https://spectrumnews.org/opinion/q-and-a/tone-phrase-may-differ-autism-meaning-clear/
“Prosody” is the term used to describe exact tone of voice used when speaking, including indicating emotion.
Unsurprisingly, autistics tend to have unusual “prosody”. When their voices were recorded (along with the voices of non-autistics), including in different emotional states, they were shown to a group of both autistics and non-autistics, who were asked to judge things such as how likely they were to interact with the person, and how natural their voice sounded.
That’s interesting to me because there’s this idea that prosody differences in adults with autism happen because these adults are insensitive to others judging them as different. But the adults with autism in our study were just as sensitive as controls at detecting unusual prosody.
Yes, autistics are apparently just as likely as non-autistics to judge autistics negatively – as sounding unnatural, for instance. Ack. It’s like many of us pick up on society’s instinctive looking down upon the “other”. Including when we are that "other".
Figure of Hourai
Er, not surprising. Generally you'll decide what's natural based on what you hear, and mostly you won't be recording your own voice.
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Has anyone here watched "The Good Doctor"?
I've heard good things about it, but the synopsis sticks out to me as problematic, because it perpetuates the stereotype that everyone with Autism has a "Special Ability" to make up for their disability or something, when that is certainly not true.
Also I think this may be relevant to the conversation:
The Tricky Path to Employment Is Trickier When You’re Autistic
Yet for the past eight years, since he lost his salaried Boston library job due to austerity measures, the only permanent job Leigh has landed is at the T.J. Maxx near his mother’s home on Cape Cod. He works part time dusting, vacuuming, and washing the mirrors, and he is paid the minimum wage, $11 an hour. Over the past few years, Leigh has applied for dozens of library positions. Every one has turned him down, most without an interview. What’s held him back? The library business is contracting, not expanding, and full-time employment is hard to come by, of course. But Leigh, who asked that his last name not be used to protect his family’s privacy, faces an additional hurdle: He has a mild form of autism, a condition that used to be labeled “pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified” and is distinct from both autism and Asperger’s.
Autistic adults may very well be the most disadvantaged disability group in the American workplace. Only 14 percent of adults with autism held paid jobs in their communities, according to one May report from Drexel University’s Autism Institute (the report looked just at those who had received state developmental disabilities services). Yet a pathetic 2 percent of all autism research funding goes to understanding adulthood and aging, according to a 2017 report from the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, based on 2015 numbers. While most research is focused on figuring out how to prevent or treat autism disorders when they are first diagnosed at young ages, we also have to remember that this work has not yet materialized as a solution for the more than 3.5 million Americans living with autism. “It’s only in the last 10 to 15 years that there’s been growing recognition of the fact that children grow up to be adults,” says Susan Daniels, executive secretary of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. As Leigh’s story demonstrates, autistic adults have their own needs—needs that we as a society are just figuring out how to fill.
edited 5th Oct '17 8:49:23 AM by megaeliz
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Surgeons 101. 
(Running medical joke: surgeons tend to relate poorly to patients. And... nursing staff.)
The fuck does not relating to people have to do with performing surgery?
It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
Yeah, I mean there's a difference between not relating and being awful. I'll take a competent surgeon who doesn't really bother to talk to me (beyond necessities, of course) over a surgeon who is either overly chatty or completely awful at bedside manner. (The "Well, there's a massive chance you're going to die in this really awful way that I'll describe in excruciating detail...and then I'll say it's a joke twenty minutes later" type is the worst.)
Not Three Laws compliant.
That article, I'd actually posted here a few weeks ago, but I'm glad you read it too. For those who haven't read it yet, it's worth a read. It's really good.
edited 5th Oct '17 2:34:16 PM by BonsaiForest
A question. In your own lives, do you feel that people are starting to understand autism better, or do they seem to merely just know the word and nothing any what it means or what the condition actually is?
Exactly this. Most people's exposure to autism these days is three things: Sheldon, Christopher Boon, and Rainman. That tells them all they feel they need to know about it. Granted, there are exceptions to this and always will be, both in how autism tends to be portrayed in mass media and how some people perceive it, but by and large, most people still don't know how autism really works. Or else we wouldn't still be having people saying, 'That's so autistic!", would we?
My understanding is that most people are at least aware of how little they know about Autism.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
My understanding is that most peoples' knowledge of autism boils down to "they're not normal, so they deserve to be mocked, bullied, and ostracized"
Because such a thing will magically make them normal. The instinctive hate of that which is different needs to be countered. It's an instinct that exists in all animal species though... And autistics are not immune to having it.
I do think it's at least good that many people are aware they don't know much.
I'm hoping the increase in shows featuring autistic characters, especially if they actually make an attempt to explain the vital "why" rather than merely present the "what", will help.
A procrastination in of itself
I'm seeing plenty of people know what it is by generally the cultural idea of it is very heavily tied to children, it's a thing kids have that causes their parents issues.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Based on what I've seen on the internet people are at least occasionally willing to call out douchebags when they use "autism" as an insult, so I'd say things are starting to begin to change, but barely.
It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.
Most of the people calling out said douchebags tend to say "I actually have autism myself" or "I know someone with autism", so it's not like people unconnected from the issue are the ones doing it.
However, I've seen people say that their minds were changed on issues from (at least in part) witnessing internet arguments. Any little bit helps, and I'm glad to see this change.
On my daily sweep of news articles about autism, I came across this unfortunate headline: Pickup Artist: I’m Autistic and Didn’t Know Rape Was Bad.
Oh, fucking hell. Let's read this nightmare.
Off to a bad start already.
It begins by explaining that Berlin was a student of pickup artist courses offered by the part of the internet known as the manosphere (where my little brother gets his morality from).
Okay, you'd have to have serious issues that go way beyond mere autism to not know that's bad.
Berlin’s developmental disability made him more of a hapless participant than predator, forensic psychiatrist and autism expert Dr. Denise Kellaher testified, calling him a gullible victim of the pickup artist teachers he paid and offering the opinion that he had learned his lesson. Though she acknowledged there was no research to support her claim, Kellaher testified that in her experience, people with autism like Berlin are unlikely to repeat their crimes.
“Once they realize they made a mistake, they don’t repeat it,” she said.
But wouldn't a 5-year-old realize that if someone vomits while being attacked, and is thrown outside while, you know, fighting back, that obviously what happened to her is horrible, and then not blog about it?
“To have this passed off as Jason's first mistake is insulting. ‘There’s a learning curve. He just didn't have the social experience, but don't worry, he'll do better next time. He now knows it's a rule to not rape a person while they are physically sick or not moving.’ Does he know that murders are wrong? How about mass shootings? Terrorist attacks? Will he obtain a "get out of jail free" card for those first offenses?”
The manosphere looks down upon autistics (particularly males) as being "beta" or even "lower than beta". Imagine a bunch of them suddenly claiming to be autistic when they get caught.
And as an autistic myself, I don't want our condition used as an excuse to do terrible things that we know are wrong! Nor do I want the general public thinking our condition inclines us to do this kind of shit!
Oh, bother.
Wow, that guy is a right prick. Way to drag down autistic people just because you're too damn chickenshit to face the consequences of your own awful behavior.
I'm not autistic and that pisses me off.
edited 7th Oct '17 8:49:44 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
I searched his name to find other articles. I got this extra detail from this article:
While one can graduate from college by being academically gifted while being socially disabled, it's the real estate business thing that gets me. That requires social skills. Very specific ones that are not the same as the ones used in other situations, yes, but let's just say my skepticism of him not knowing what he did was wrong increased even further.
Oh, bother.
The guy is full of shit.
That manosphere thing bothers me. If memory serves, other people with mental health issues of various kinds (Dylan Roof and Elliot Rodger) were driven into committing crimes (shootings in their case) by being exposed to such hate-mongering environments (racist and sexist, respectively).
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I don't know if Elliot Rodger had mental health issues prior, but yes he was a part of the manosphere and much of the ideology in his manifesto was clearly taken straight from it.
edited 7th Oct '17 12:03:18 PM by Draghinazzo
A procrastination in of itself
If the guy is so mentally stunted that he has the emotional maturity of a 5 year old then doesn't he need to be assigned a legal guardian? Likewise shouldn't the people who pushed him to commit such acts face charges as they would if they got an actual 5 year old to do such things?
Like even if I buy such a defence, the responce to it shouldn't be a lesser sentence it should be permanent commitment to either a secure mental health facility or being stripped of all rights of adulthood and being placed permanently in care.
edited 7th Oct '17 5:35:06 PM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
As a former member of the manosphere, I can see why he is stuck there.
Autistics have been known to seek niche interests and the manosphere is no exception to said niche. Add in the rethoric that claiming that they are helping men to improve themselves, something that mainstream society only started to practice recently, it's pretty much a recipe to disaster.
I left it because upon further examination, what they do cause even more damage to men. I really can't help but to sympathize with him because had he found other ideological interests, at least of the likes of r/menslib, he would not have committed such henious acts. That said, I agreed with the above comments.
The thing is, no pick up artist I ever heard of claimed that rape was an acceptable approach.
It's also true that gangs of teenagers, roaming around without effective adult supervision, are simply a risk factor. They tend to disinhibit each other, and engage in riskier behavior than anyone else. Unfortunately, that includes messing with strangers.
I wouldn't be terrified of them, or stay home-bound or anything over it, but you do want to employ situational awareness when you are effectively alone with a group like that.