Autism

     Any questions or comments on Autism? If so post them here. No offensive comments allowed, don’t get this thread locked.

Being autistic actually makes me better at chess because autism allows me to see patterns super easily. How about you

Lel nice!

I worked with kids on the autism spectrum and my step son was diagnosed with it. It can be hard to know at times who is autistic especially on message boards though there are signs if someone interacts enough.

Message boards?

Fora like these

I am btw. And yes I am a chess teacher. I have mild and yes I was totally bullied at school . Even in chess. I never give up. And I’m 40 years old. I don’t bring this up often because a lot of people usually are afraid to discuss it. I enjoy the game. And also I do respect my opponent in chess. 

Here's a bit of research showing that playing and studying chess significantly increased childrens processing speed scores on IQ tests.  Processing speed tends to be impaired in autistic people:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327070545_Impact_of_Chess_Learning_on_Processing_Speed_of_School-Going_Children

I think that's a good bit of evidence that chess may be beneficial to Autistic people's cognitive function.

Processing speed appears to be impaired in autistic people because our limbs do not like to respond to how fast our mind is moving. This is called apraxia. Autism is a neural condition, not a cognitive one. So, chess does not make Autistics' cognitive function better, Autistics are good at chess because of the way our brains work and how we can visually see patterns in basically everything in the world.

Apraxia is a distinct diaganosis and not all people with autism are diagnosable with apraxia, the two are thought to be comorbid rather than fundamentally the same thing.

Apraxia itself is not thought to be untreatable.  People with verbal apraxia see Speech Language Pathologists who in turn use methods like speech drills, which would be cruel and pointless if issues with apraxia could not be improved at all.  If speech drills can help with verbal apraxia, wouldn't that suggest chess drills might be effective with other forms of apraxia?

It's possible that people with Autism and/or Apraxia could uniquely be unable to benefit from chess improving processing speed, but I don't believe there's a particular reason to believe that's the case either.  Having some sort of neurological condition does not reduce learning potential to zero even if there is a lifetime impairment.

What is that?

Only a neurological disorder that around two percent of the population have.