Aspergers Not As Literal As You May Think–Terra Vance
Written by SAPL on October 5th, 2018 in Communication.
How to test if a person has the Asperger trait of taking things literally, and potentially, be an Asperger?
The Unapologetically Aspie has devised a few vignettes to identify Aspergerness based on what the person in the conversation might say.
Terra Vance has proposed that we simply put idioms in our conversations with potential Aspies.
If you get some really strange sounding answer, then you must have an Aspie on the other end.
One particular idiom you might try is to urge the Aspie not to “look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The Asperger may have many responses including amazement that anyone would want to receive a horse as a gift, especially in the age of tiny homes. He/she may then question why anyone wouldn’t look the horse in the mouth–as such a large and expensive animal requires much care and examining its mouth for health may save you a vet bill down the line.
The hilarity continues.
A similar example was created in an older post titled Taking Things Literally on the fact that Aspergers do have a tendency to not pick up on topics with questionable/various meanings.
“One day the student was going through the list and found a personal favor the professor was requesting. In addition to photocopying handouts, doing literature searches, the student was instructed to find a “female doctor.”
“After turning in the list, the student was shocked and a little embarrassed to discover the assignment had been completed incorrectly. The professor didn’t care if her doctor was named Janet or John. She just needed a doctor for the…female region.”
The sarcasm in the post was meant to highlight the very points Vance mentions in her article. Number two and four in particular.
“2. Aspies are much more complicated than just “taking things literally.” They all know that something out of context in speech will cause them to focus on and interpret that thing until they’ve figured it out.”
“4. Aspies have a similar sense of humor, and one that, if you’re NT, will likely not find so humorous.”
Hope you found the humor in both of our examples.
