Can You Read People?

Really look at this chart. Would you be able to read emotions just off this?

Reading people is one of the things that Roger will openly tell people that he can not do.  He can't tell you if someone is mad, happy, sad, scared just by looking at them.  He has to be told. Well that is usually the case. If he is around people a lot he can sometimes figure out what is going on but not always.
His brothers and sisters start to get annoyed with him he doesn't realize they are getting annoyed until they start screaming. Then he backs off. This weekend my husband had a bad week so he wasn't in the best of moods. The other kids picked up on it right away not Roger. Not until someone told him did he get it.
A case where he has noticed would be with me. I have a back injury that causes pain and sometimes it can get pretty bad. Roger has figured out that if I am quiet and moving slow I hurt.Now he still has to ask but hey at least he is picking some of it up. He has even told his stepbrother if shes moving that slow it hurts stay away.
I think this may be where some of the misconceptions about feelings and Autism come from.  Just because someone cannot tell by looking at someone how they are feeling that does not mean that they themselves do not feel. Or that they do not have empathy. Look at the charts they give kids to teach feelings they are always over exaggerated faces that no one has in real life. Once Roger is told how someone is feeling he usually understands. He does have some trouble figuring out his own feelings but just because he can't always put a name to them doesn't mean he feels nothing. I leave you with a clip from Parenthood where Amber is trying to teach Max how to apologize.