We’re thinking Asperger’s

My son is not your typical kid. He’s a genius. He’s been classified as gifted but also has learning differences. I mean, he just doesn’t fit the public school mold. Some professionals would prefer to say that he has learning disabilities. But is bad handwriting really a disability in this digital world? The public school is like the last place in America where handwriting reigns supreme.

Anyway, my son’s brain just processes things so differently from the majority of people and it takes a toll on him. Think of it this way. Everything you smell is 10 times stronger to his nose. Everything you touch, he feels the sensation 10 times more. You get the idea.

Often, he overloads and this can digress into a meltdown.

And we finally think we know what is causing it. Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).

AS is basically high-functioning autism. I’ve been spending alot of time lately learning about AS and autism.

They say autism is like a spectrum - on one end are the “normal” people and on the other end are the extremely autistic people who can’t speak or hardly function in mainstream society. Asperger’s is kind of like being between the extremes. As one teen on YouTube explains, it’s like being half-autistic and half-”normal”.

As I’ve learned, I’ve become pretty pissed at the way society sets things up. I hate the word “normal” and “disorder.” People only want to think about the things that are “wrong” with autistic kids. But my kid has so many amazing strengths. He’s awesome at math and wants to be a robotics engineer.

And did you know that people like Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton (among many others) were likely autistic or Asperger’s?

The thing about autistic kids is that they can be obsessed with one particular thing and become masters at it. That’s why autistic people can go on to do amazing things. So why are people trying to “cure” it and make them have a variety of interests?

The funny thing is that we get mixed messages from society. We’re told to have a passion, but there’s a mysterious line where passion becomes an obsession. And they tell us all obsession is BAD.

So we cultivate interests in a variety of things. Then we have such a tough time figuring out how to do it all. We spread ourselves thin and wish we knew that “one thing” we should be doing with our lives.

There’s so much to learn from kids with autism and Asperger’s about how to really live life. If only we figure out how to drown out the noise from people who should know better.