Is it possible to tell a person is Autistic

[TempeFan]

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.

Even then most get it wrong. A lot of people on this forum were misdiagnosed at some point by someone with a medical degree.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

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.

I am diagnosed I was diagnosed at 5 by the ed phyce and the paediatrician.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

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

It was a boy and it wouldn’t surprise me.

 

[Peter Morrison]

I suppose you would have to know what Autism is in order to conjure up the question "are you". There are a lot of quality answers for you to absorb. It seems that everyone is right because there are so many dimensions to consider. I was going to vote "lucky guess", or "sixth sense". I get peculiar looks sometimes because I am unaware of my facial expressions or delayed responses if I am deep in thought. NTs sense we are different, but most can't grasp why. I think it is great if someone notices. It could be the start of social acknowledgement and acceptance. It's the other ones who might want to call store security that bother me.

 

[Otenba]

Considering how many millions of women have gone without diagnosis for decades because of the male association autism has, I'd say there definitely isn't a sure way to tell from looking at someone. At the end of the day, autistic traits are still human traits so they could easily be just be a NT person too. Also - that person could have been lying about being autistic if they felt like lying for attention.

This all said, I have heard that autistics do find each other but I dunno how much of that is a sense thing. I met a good autistic friend back in college and she isn't surprised that I'm possibly autistic too and being diagnosed later than her (she was only diagnosed a few years ago after her little girl was diagnosed). The key thing of autism doesn't even have to be in the picture for people to find each other it seems to me, but it is more likely just coincidence!

 

[Ezra]

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.

Yes all those things. It's very distinct to me with those with moderate to sever autism. On another forum a couple of members who said they have a diagnosis of moderate autism both posted videos of themselves, and I could easily tell that they do have level 2 autism.

When it comes to seeing someone in public I have seen those I would call "in the club" in that they either at least have moderate to severe autism or some other condition in which we could relate to one another. Said people are never by themselves. There's always someone with them as a care giver.

 

[ainely]

I don't know if it's possible. Some people just say it as an insult but I don't agree at all. Let's say that I'm the kind of person who sometimes says things without even thinking about it, or is something that I shouldn't say but I don't have this critical sense.

 

[Bedlamite]

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

To absolutely distinguish an individual as having Autism, I believe is different from equating certain autistic traits to full-blown affected behavior. What I mean by this is I've known some people who were definitely neurotypical which from time to time would exhibit behavior that could be attributed to someone on the spectrum but it was neither done in a seemingly conscience manner nor was the behavior committed repeatedly. So, only after long term recognition can someone truly identify whether or not someone is Autistic.

 

[Panthro]

I feel that my aspie radar is pretty good, in fact I recently had my radar activated by that this basketball player that I suspect is on the spectrum despite there being no news about it:

What do you guys think?