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> You don’t even have to go to the extreme end. Ask people with milder presentations, and they’ll be able to tell you about all sorts of confusing interactions

> You don’t even have to go to the extreme end. Ask people with milder presentations, and they’ll be able to tell you about all sorts of confusing interactions and frustrating situations they’ve experienced that wouldn’t have happened if they were neurotypical. Hard to say that doesn’t impact their quality of life. Sure, I had rough childhood, but looking back, I wouldn't want to be someone else. The way my brain focuses and optimises for certain ideas actually benefits society if the environment is correct. There's only limited amount of processing power anyone can have. I just have less points for social and more for other areas that others don't have. Yet society expects us to normalize or consider it a disease. I'm now very successful and extremely proud where I have reached in life. In my childhood I used to question why people didn't like me, if I had myself from now to guide myself, and create an environment for myself, I'm sure I would have had 100% happy childhood. And I know what and how to do if I ever had someone like myself as a kid, and it's not a disease. The reason my childhood was terrible was EXACTLY because of expectation that everyone should behave like X, and that was just not me. So everyone tells me I have disease that needs to be fixed. It's disgusting. I didn't finish high school because of all the issues I had, and spent years in depression, but as I happened to finally land in an environment that appreciated my differing thinking I was able to do exactly what my brain is suited for and make 8x+ average income in my area. I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it.

WA 2y ago
> I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it. As a parent of an autistic kid: How would you cultivate that? Our son is autistic, he is 8 years old. He started to hate school. All he cares for is Minecraft and Magic: The Gathering. It's a bit sad to see that he seemingly drowns his curiosity by immersing himself mentally only in these two topics. I wonder if there's a way to guide him to develop interest in other topics. Any recommendations?
- imtringued 2y ago
  Make him play a Minecraft mod pack like Nomifactory or Gregtech horizons and an economic simulation game like prosperous universe. Use that as a stepping stone to increase his interest in architecture, computer science, mechanical engineering, chemistry or aerospace. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3Rvcnk%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3R...
- ModernMech 2y ago
  Best I can say is lean into it. Make everything those themes or adjacent to them in some way. You’re lucky because Minecraft is a gateway to computing in general. Find out what he specifically likes about it and then figure out how to use Minecraft to build a bridge toward real world skill that still include everything he likes about Minecraft. Forcing him to do things he doesn’t want to will be next to impossible. RSD is real and irrational. You can trick him into wanting to do things though. And by trick I don’t mean deceive but just to make him thinks he wants it. Give him a choice and let him choose, but make both options good. Don’t force him to do things your way or the correct way as you see it. Autistic people like to build and use our own systems, so that’s probably what he likes out of Minecraft, a world he can shape to his liking. He rejects the real world because it forces him to be something he doesn’t want to be.
  - WA 2y ago
    Thanks, coincidentally, I listened to a podcast episode about RSD (assuming you mean Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) this morning and yeah, it is absolutely real. He's extremely sensitive to criticism, which often results in a vicious cycle. Will try to work with Minecraft to give him more topics. So far, he didn't like the whole Redstone logic stuff, but maybe it'll come in a bit. His mathematical abilities are actually quite good (and so are his language capabilities).

WA 2y ago

> I had passion as a kid, interest in weird things, but school and the social environment killed every little bit of it. As a parent of an autistic kid: How would you cultivate that? Our son is autistic, he is 8 years old. He started to hate school. All he cares for is Minecraft and Magic: The Gathering. It's a bit sad to see that he seemingly drowns his curiosity by immersing himself mentally only in these two topics. I wonder if there's a way to guide him to develop interest in other topics. Any recommendations?

imtringued 2y ago
Make him play a Minecraft mod pack like Nomifactory or Gregtech horizons and an economic simulation game like prosperous universe. Use that as a stepping stone to increase his interest in architecture, computer science, mechanical engineering, chemistry or aerospace. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3Rvcnk%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYSfDcbY0w0&pp=ygULbm9taWZhY3R...
ModernMech 2y ago
Best I can say is lean into it. Make everything those themes or adjacent to them in some way. You’re lucky because Minecraft is a gateway to computing in general. Find out what he specifically likes about it and then figure out how to use Minecraft to build a bridge toward real world skill that still include everything he likes about Minecraft. Forcing him to do things he doesn’t want to will be next to impossible. RSD is real and irrational. You can trick him into wanting to do things though. And by trick I don’t mean deceive but just to make him thinks he wants it. Give him a choice and let him choose, but make both options good. Don’t force him to do things your way or the correct way as you see it. Autistic people like to build and use our own systems, so that’s probably what he likes out of Minecraft, a world he can shape to his liking. He rejects the real world because it forces him to be something he doesn’t want to be.
- WA 2y ago
  Thanks, coincidentally, I listened to a podcast episode about RSD (assuming you mean Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) this morning and yeah, it is absolutely real. He's extremely sensitive to criticism, which often results in a vicious cycle. Will try to work with Minecraft to give him more topics. So far, he didn't like the whole Redstone logic stuff, but maybe it'll come in a bit. His mathematical abilities are actually quite good (and so are his language capabilities).