Q & A: Developmental Disabilities

Q: My character is developmentally disabled in such a way that learning is very difficult. Speaking requires a fair amount of concentration and reading simple words requires complete focus. Writing is nearly impossible not due to coordination, but because he has to focus so much on putting the first word down that he has lost the sentence he was thinking of. He also has issues understanding sarcasm and cannot usually tell when someone else is lying. Telling a lie himself would be a very difficult task just due to having to think of the truth, think up the lie around that truth, put that into words, and then get the words out. If possible he does not show any outward signs of his disability, and it is very probable that much of his condition was due to the lack of properly specialized education.

A: At first glance, the disorder that seems like it would fit best is autism.

People with autism can be very intelligent, but their ability to understand social cues, social interactions, and body language are impaired. It also causes communication problems, to the point that some don't develop natural speech patterns. Instead, they may babble, echo what they hear (echolalia), and respond poorly to the enviroment. They may also have trouble picking out what they're supposed to be looking at (eg they look at the pointing hand rather than what's pointed at, or they stay focused on something that's pointed at rather than the following interaction between people about the object).

Other info: People with autism tend to resist change in the enviroment, perform apparently purposeless movements like flapping their hands, following daily rituals very precisely, and compulsive behavior.

There is a higher-functioning form of autism called Asperger's disease. These people have the same difficulty with social cues, but they tend to vocalize pretty well -- sometimes they're called "little professors." Einstein is said to have had Asperger's.

Your character could also just have a learning disorder or a speech disorder, like a stutter, that makes it difficult for him to communicate what's in his head. It's fairly common for people with learning disabilities to also have some trouble with social cues. A learning disability or even just a failure to develop normally because he didn't have adequate exposure to ideas (before the age of 12 -- 12 seems to be the magic age) would make more sense if the problem is due not to a biological cause but to an inadequate environment.