I can’t stand when someone tells me, “Oh, it’s only Asperger’s!”
It really gets me riled up. Yes, autism is a spectrum disorder and Asperger’s
does fall on the high functioning end but it IS autism. I have actually had
people ask me why Andy has to go to that special school. I couldn’t believe it.
Children with Asperger’s do not typically have any delay in speech; in fact
they often have what is known as Little Professor Verbose. The Aspies, as they
are affectionately known, tend to have wonderful vocabularies and amazing speaking
skills. Andy was using words like quantify
at the age of 4. Seriously. They are often gifted, my son, for example, has a
great gift for math, his first day of Kindergarten he did not color in the picture,
he flipped over the paper and did square roots on the back. Seriously. But because my son can speak quite well and has
a good head on his shoulders does not mean that he does not have autism.
Asperger’s children have a difficult time with relating to
others. My son actually prefers the company of adults, he finds them easier to
talk to, and more interested in the same things he is. God bless my 8 year old
Godson Elliot who at least pretends to be interested when Andy tries to engage
in a conversation about the stock market or history of printed currency with
him. But unfortunately the Elliots of the world are few and far between. Most typical children simply to not relate to
my son, and there you see the autism. He is limited in his interests, for Andy,
it’s cats and anything that has to do with numbers (money, calculators, clocks,
watches, etc…) and seldom does he even speak more than a word about other
things. He has difficulty with
imagination so rather than play with action figures he’d rather add
numbers. He also has a very limited
sense of humor and he doesn’t appreciate when others laugh at things which he construes
as stupid instead of funny. We played
store and I said that the bananas were $26.00 a pound, he hit me. Seriously. He also gets so involved in what he is doing
that he tunes out everything else. I can call his name 50 times and he will not hear me due to the intense concentration. Seriously.
Wherever someone falls on the spectrum, their autism will
manifest itself differently. But you need to show respect and not judge the
validity of someone’s diagnosis just because it is not immediately evident to
you. I’ll be honest, I feel blessed to have an Aspie, the prognosis for his
future is great. As long as I keep
giving him the support he needs maybe he can fall in with others who have an
official diagnosis of Asperger’s or were suspected to….Abraham Lincoln, Henry
Ford, George Washington, Marilyn Monroe, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Albert
Einstein, Bill Gates, Robin Williams, Mozart, Vincent Van Gough, Emily
Dickinson, Beethoven, Alexander Graham Bell….and I could go on and on! Pretty interesting
group! I love my son who has autism, my son who has Asperger's!
