Why autism spectrum disorders can look like defiance and what to do to help

Asperger's Syndrome is one of the autism spectrum disorders that is often missed because it is diagnosed as other problems such as attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiance disorder. Obviously, the medication for attention deficit can't always be expected to work very well if that isn't the problem. And attempts to control defiance will only make matters worse when the person is expected to understand something simple but just doesn't get it. Because of an incapacity for certain kinds of abstraction.

An incapacity for abstraction is typical of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (specifically, Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder). This incapacity for abstraction often exists in people who in other ways can function at a high level (i.e., with normal to high vocabulary levels), therefore leading others to expect the person to have abilities that simply aren't present. The problem is so puzzling because of the complicated and sophisticated abilities that are displayed in other ways, especially by autistic savants who can perform sophisticated calculations and other uncanny intellectual feats. This is not so puzzling, however, when it becomes clear that this problem is circumscribed primarily to language, and it is probably because language is fundamentally metaphorical and social in nature.

This explanation can be understood by looking at how a person with autism tries to understand something as simple as the phrase: "I'm going to jump in the shower."

The meaning intended by the word "jump" is to get into the shower or to hurry into the shower, and is not intended to conjure up the image of a person jumping up and down in the shower. However, that image of a person jumping up and down in the shower is precisely the image that a person with an autism spectrum disorder is most likely to have, and the person might confirm this by telling you to be careful when you jump in the shower.

This use of the word "jump" is not excessively metaphorical but has just enough of a metaphorical leap of abstraction to illustrate the idea that virtually all words can be regarded as metaphorical to some degree. This degree can range from extremely high to not at all (i.e., not at all because the original metaphorical meanings have been lost in time). For example, words can be:

1.so highly metaphorical or idiosyncratic that they sound crazy

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