General Discussion

All of them are particularly intense in their endeavors and socially tone deaf. That they are very intelligent is an understatement. All are delightful people to be around and knowledgeable about the world. They are kind. They struggle with friendship though and tend to have one or two close friends and that's it. My extended family on my mother's side are pretty much the same; shy, reclusive, and numbers people. The spectrum thing is problematic because there is so much variety on the spectrum -
owing to our ignorance about the condition and having to define it broadly. I strongly suspect that there have got to be some very serious differences that are qualitative vs quantitative when going from non-verbal autism to those having no intellectual disabilities. We just don't know what those qualitative differences are yet. While some are excited about an autism cure - all should take care and distinguish between conditions that prompt head banging and those that got us to the moon. One of these things is not like the other.