October, you have described my kid to a T! I've always thought of her as someone who arrived here from another country and had to learn a new language and never learned the nuances and connotations of normal everyday communication. She absolutely does not read body language. It was diagnosed when she was very young as a right hemispheric dysfunction and could be compared to someone who has had a stroke in the right part of their brain. She had 8 years of pragmatic speech therapy which helped greatly but she is never going to be totally all right. And she could be interpreted as being very self-absorbed and not empathetic to others. However, she has never deliberately manipulated others or been deliberately hurtful to others. If she finds out she has inadvertantly been rude, she jumps in to explain. She is very literal also. A funny story: During the recent consolidation of college loans that ended July 1st, her sister told her to call the organization that she needed to call and give them the information they needed. Her respons was to ask why she should call them if they were in Wyoming and she was in Washington State! Her sister told her to JUST CALL THEM!
She's a great kid and has gone through four years of university, is involved in ministry and animal rescue. She is definitely not narcissistic but I can see why some could equate the two. By the way, Asperger's Syndrome is also referred to and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder. Thanks for reading this far and letting me go on about my kid. I'm very proud of her. Bittles
