Special Interests

Some / Most or All of what I have to say in this blog could be true for some, most or all people. I don't know because according the those who are in a position to apply labels to others, I am an Aspie. Therefore I don't know if what is true for me is true for people without aspergers too. There are many many myths about people with Asperger's (like that we are all shy and anti social or that all children with asperger's behave badly or inappropriately more often than children who do not have Asperger's, that we are all like rainman) however the idea that Aspies tend to have one special interest on which they focus is probably true for most of us, although it may not seem that way to others. My special interest is and has always been 'how things fit in the natural world', which some people would say means that I am especially interested in everything! Except Im not. Im really not interested in money. No matter how hard I try, the accumulation of wealth doesn't really make sense to me. I wish it did but I cannot make it so. Likewise I am not particularly interested in traditional mathematics although there are certain numbers that I find fascinating (like Fibonacci's sequence and the numbers 11, 88 and 42 (the answer to everything)). Throughout my life I have had passing interests in other things too. As a teenager I had a passing interest in 'making friends' and 'fitting in' (Wow, what a lot of effort that was!), I also had more than a passing interest in drama and singing but I think this was part of my lifelong interest in words, language and speech. I have always been interested in and drawn to 'my people', as in, other people with autism spectrum disorder so it did not come as a surprise when that label was applied to me. I also have a fascination with truth and with time and with patterns in truth and time. There have been some 'themes' that have dominated my special interest in how things fit in the natural world. Right now the dominant theme in my special interest is "invertebrates", past themes include 'birds', 'mangroves', 'intertidal ecology' and 'coastal processes' to name a few.
Given that today is the first day of this blog I will try not to overwhelm you (or me) with too many ideas about special interests but I will say this. If you are a parent, teacher or friend of someone living with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) my personal opinion is that you should use the special interest for positive reinforcement rather than negative. For example 'when you do this particular thing my way you can have or do this other thing related to your special interest'. Negative reinforcement (ie if you don't do what I want then I am going to take your special interest away) may result in the required behavioural outcome but it will come at an enormous cost to the person living with ASD. Again, I can only speak for myself when I say that I was never very forgiving. I have always had a very strong sense of social justice, so positive reinforcement seemed fair to me. The use of negative reinforcement seemed particularly cruel and unfair to me and could destroy my trust in a person forever. If used in the correct way, teachers, parents and friends can use an aspies special interest as a vehicle for all kinds of learning and behaviour modification. Here's an interesting picture of one of my giant burrowing cockroaches shedding it's exoskeleton. Enjoy!