Is it possible to tell a person is Autistic

[ZebraAspie]

I was at my swim session this weekend it was very busy so I said to the boy I was with “I don’t like this. It’s to crowded”.
And he asked whether I was autistic and when I said yes she said “I can tell... a bit”.

So I guess my question is can you tell if a person autistic other then by getting to know them obviously.

 

[Kyou Nukui]

Interesting question.. I don't think so.
I sometimes recognise certain familiar traits in people (things I usually like about that person) that are common with NDs, but those don't make someone definitely autistic.
I'm actually surprised that I got diagnosed on the basis of a little over an hour of standardised questions that never even included half of my weirdness lol.
I'm wondering if one of my brothers is ND like me too, and I've known him my entire life!

I can't imagine any NT being able to tell. Lucky guess perhaps.

 

[onlything]

It may be possible, in fact. If you spend a lot of time between people from a specific group you start observing behaviours and traits common in them. For us it would for example be stimming, distressing body language in crowded areas, blank or scared look, way of talking etc. One of my NT aquintances is surprisingly successful in, for example, recognising if a person is gay or straight(or bi). She's almost always right, about 90 percent of times. Looks like people from mentioned groups often move in a specific way, or have some quirks that 'give them away', or look at people like 'this' etc. I don't think there is a sure observational way that would let you recognise different groups of people with 100% accuracy but if you're quite observant you can recognise people based on observed patterns with quite a high possibility. So, I'd say it's possible to realise the possibility of a person being on the spectrum and speculate on the gathered data, although it's in no way foolproof.

That is, this level of body language recognition skills is still quite far from my reach.

 

[Monachopia]

It depends on which traits are stronger or weaker in an ND. There are many of us on the high functioning scale who could pass for an NT either because we learned how to blend in or because the traits that would "give us away" are not as prominent... You wouldn't be able to recognise everyone who is on the spectrum, but there would be people who's mannerisms and/or social behaviour would be more obvious. I've met both types of Aspies "out in the wild", ones who are slightly more "wooden" in their interactions with others, some where it took a little while of talking to them to realise they don't understand another person's emotional state (but they seemed like an NT otherwise) and some that I was surprised to know were on the spectrum at all. So it depends on the person, the strength of their traits and any upbringing/socialisation/life experience they've had.

 

[Ezra]

If someone is knowledgeable of and familiar with autism, one can make an educated guess. Or one can get an impression and suspect.

 

[Progster]

I can't ever know 100% that someone is autistic unless they tell me that they are, but sometimes I can pick up on mannerisms or behaviour that I know is common to autistic people and then I think that person may be on the spectrum.

 

[Autistamatic]

I don't think there is such a thing as autistic "gaydar" but I have recognised familiar traits in people after I've got to know them reasonably well and I've been right about them. When I get talking to someone else with AS it's often easier than with some NT people even when neither of us has yet disclosed. You find you have interests, attitudes and experiences in common.
For an NT person to recognise ASD without specialist training I would estimate it's either a guess based on limited evidence, or they are close to someone on the spectrum and recognise familiar traits.

 

[Major Tom]

I think it depends on severity a lot. Most people wouldn't believe that I'm autistic, but with my son it's obvious. I think to most I just come off as an introvert.
I can however spot autistic traits in others fairly easily. I've noticed some that probably don't even suspect themselves. I could be wrong, but I doubt it because of my own personal experiences.

 

[Adora]

I didn’t think anyone could pick up that I am on the spectrum and thought I only appeared shy and reserved to others but recently a friend of my husband was talking on the phone and they started to talk about me and my husband told me that his friend let slipped that he believes that I am on the spectrum and referring that I was someone who has a “Dash of Autism”,I was surprised because I don’t see myself as that obvious but my husband said to me that it’s written all over me so yes if someone has some idea or knowledge about ASD they can pick it up like my husband friend and also my husband who has said numerous of times that he knew before me or anyone else did.

 

[Pats]

I think it depends on the severity. I know one young man that it is very obvious. But those who are high functioning and masking you probably wouldn't. But then I'm not at all observant with some things. And in children, obviously someone is picking up on it.

 

[Graphin]

For me I'd say when one really looks into a person, I've seen a few people who consistently do mostly details of those differently -
-Slow or fast eye movements, too much or not enough eye contact, eye movement patterns that totally fall out of range of what I observe with NT
-Moving maybe robotically, often doing complex body movements in different steps (yes to me people seem to do it very similarly), movement may seem plain awkward or out of sync with the environment
-(if any) Body language much simpler/ like it's artificial, maybe stiff.
-(if any) often delayed, simple, facial expressions. Can express far fewer emotions with facial expressions, repetitive
-(ignoring stimming) fidgeting, all kinds of unneccesary movements
-Even if very talkative tends to get quiet in groups
-May often be clueless or frozen for a few seconds after something spontaneus happens
-{Lots of odd things socially}
-Many of those listed things are even more noticable under stress

3 people, me, a girl and a boy (who goes in my class now), I met all of them long term, each one showed most of those points, and every point came at least twice, I don't know for sure any of them are actually aspie, but I've seen most of those things being effectively hidden from neurotypicals (dismissed as slightly odd or shy) and not really noticeable on the surface, but the actual how or details are really different.

I observed people really a lot, apart from being lost in my mind the second most common thing to do in 10 years of school or being dragged around by my parents

 

[WildCat]

Unless you're observing and analyzing someone closely enough (which I don't recommend) and have some background knowledge, I doubt it. Someone who's more afflicted may very well stand out from the crowd, but then that's really nobody's business to pry into except for the individual and those closest to them.

You can be an armchair professional and go with your (un)professional gut because why not, but previous threads on this forum have taught me that's a bad idea that's likely to backfire.

 

[OkRad]

One of the things they do in assessments is watch. So yes, that can come into play. Stims, etc. But even the best clinicians can miss it if someone has spent their whole life passing as NT. So it's very complicated.

 

[TempeFan]

It's like love at first sight, you may get a tingly feeling but you don't really know. The last time I recognized a person was autistic, it was a child who seemed simply childlike. Then her mother walked in the room all nervous and overprotective and explaining social cues to her daughter, etc. That tipped me off, so I took a second look and yeah, it was obvious to me but not to any of the dozen other people in the room. I found out later when we looked them up on Facebook that I was right.

If you are on the spectrum or do personally know someone who is and see a similar trait, that possibility pops into your head. Sometimes it comes from the old gossip mill where someone is spreading a rumor which may or may not be true. The experience you described seems like the former. He probably knows an ND who gets uncomfortable in crowds.

When and where I grew up, autism was unheard of. Now it's become a buzz word and a money maker for rich people who exploit and discriminate. Even people out here in the middle of nowhere have heard the word and maybe a trait or two to go with it. Children in this town are being diagnosed/misdiagnosed, so now it's a thing.

 

[Judge]

I realize that in some cases there might be visual queues to establish one is on the spectrum. Something I would expect Neurotypicals to be more inclined to consider, as visual queues seem very important to them in making judgments which admittedly may or may not be accurate- or even in the ballpark at times.

When I look back on my life, I definitely can recall having worked with people who were likely much like myself. Which may explain why I seem to relate to them better than others. However in my own case, this still involved a process of getting to know these people over a great deal of time, as opposed to just a chance meeting and "snap judgment".

I could see myself wondering if someone might be on the spectrum, but making that "snap judgment" wouldn't be so likely in my own case. In considering such a thing, it seems odd to me that I can't recall meeting anyone personally who I either knew or thought had classic autism per se. Those I mentioned earlier I would definitely consider to be high-functioning people on the spectrum, but not likely having any telltale signs that could be determined in a short, chance meeting.

 

[Mr Allen]

Depends, if they're low functioning you can often tell by the way they look and speak, sometimes their speech is a bit delayed or slow, and sometimes you can see if in their facial expressions.

 

[Fino]

It's probably easier with children because they haven't had as much practicing pretending not to be. I have a student who talks with a monotone, has one facial expression almost all the time, tells me the actual names of dinosaurs and how they differ from movie's representations, randomly starts yelling and hitting the piano, etc. She's not diagnosed, as far as I know, but it seems obvious.

It's an autistic thing to think people are you talking to you, isn't? For example, if you're in a group of five people, and you ask a question that could only logically be directed to one person, an autistic friend of mine, one who is diagnosed, will answer indignantly something like, "I don't know!" or "that doesn't make sense!" or something else. And the student I referred to above does this, as well.

 

[Alis1998]

There are certain behaviours which can be seen as autistic ofcourse. Some people who know someone with autism will regonise those behaviours. These behaviours will ofcourse not always be seen, or occur.

It really depends on how the person behave. I used to be a master in hiding my autism. Nobody in college knew, except the head of the school. Except in the last year when I told them. She never told a teacher, because I was afraid to let people know. It is rather funny that in my college, I was one of the harder working student and not nessarly liked by classmates but not hated either. A little detail to add is that I was in beauty school, and within most beauty schools there is ofcourse a pratice salon (cheaply priced). I had my own costumers, which came weekly and monthly specially for me. If I was sick, they wouldn't come. Nobody in my class had that many, which is understandable in some agree. I can easily fake being social. I am not nessarly a social creature, but I have learned and analysed in some degree what people like to hear, asked. My conversation rule was for example rather easy, ask open answer questions. When the answer is giving, ask about the answer. In that way it was never akwardly silent. That is ofcourse a thing that many people know about autism : the social cluelessness. I am not saying I turned into a social unicorn, especially not in one day.
The funny thing is that I will act diffrent towards familly and friends however. Then the autistic behaviour will be more noticeable. For example, taking longer to reply, the head scratching or cracking my wrist while I am trying to focuss on the conversation, the comfort seeking (only with my boyfriend) while talking, the not looking constantly in the eyes.

But the thing is for me, I will notice pretty easily when somebody is autistic. Maybe because Iknow my own autistic behaviour too well, and can see that in others. When I notice it is mostly at work, when I hide my autism from costumers. I have a few autistic costumers as well, which have eventually told me about their autism. Why I only notice it at work is because my social life in real life is rather small.

Some autistic behaviour can also be to stim. I learned how to do it in public without being noticed however, and only started doing it 2 years ago. It begin with cracking my wrist, which isn't a good thing. But then I slowly started to wear more texturedrised clothes. Mostly from the same material I already wore and started to rub and pluck it a bit. Just like I was removing some kind of dustflake of it.

But we should never feel the need to hide our autism. I truely want to say that. We are born this way and there is nothing wrong with us. We just need some things sometimes a bit more.

 

[BraidedPony]

The girl that asked you if you are autistic is probably autistic herself. It sounds just like a blunt question I would ask!

 

[Mattymatt]

It's entirely possible to recognize signs and symptoms but I caution against diagnosis unless the person giving the diagnosis isa medical doctor or licensed clinician.