Life with Aspergers

Last time, we looked at the influence of parental perception on the child's "view of themselves" and established that normal parent reactions are often enough to let the child know that they are different. In today's post, I'll be looking at the primary school years and how interactions between children make these differences obvious. Deaf but Still Different When I was in preschool, it was discovered that I was very deaf - the result of an uncontained ear infection. It would have been easy for me to wrongly attribute my differences to this problem (as I did with many of my social issues in secondary school). In primary school however, I was fortunate because our next door neighbour had a son the same age as me, who went to the same primary school and who was also deaf - albeit a much worse case. This gave me a benchmark for my social performance and it was obvious from day one of kindergarten, where he made instant and lasting friendships while I made...

The Aim of this Series I'm often asked by other parents for my thoughts on telling children about their aspergers. Will knowlege of the condition help or hinder them? In fact, taking things one step further... will the knowledge of aspie characteristics actually cause the differences between the aspergers and neurotypical children to become exagerated? To know the answer to this, we must first examine adults who were diagnosed with aspergers late in their lives to determine whether they felt "different" as children. Having been diagnosed at 37, I guess I'm as good a subject as any. Parental Perception There's no doubt that my parents knew that I was different from a very early age and there were lots of things that I did which were considerably different to other children. One of the most obvious differences was that I formed an unnatural bond with a blanket which lasted far longer than it should have. My mother still tells stories about how she couldn't t...

I'd like to draw your attention to a good article on Hyperfocus on Additude, an ADHD site. Hyperfocus does come into play in ADD/ADHD but I think it's even more applicable to Aspergers. The article is: Learn About ADHD: Focus on Hyperfocus Information about ADHD symptom of hyperfocus -- a common symptom that explains why many attention deficit children and adults can concentrate so intently at times. by Royce Flippin http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/612.html The article covers the good parts of hyperfocus, which is something I've already done but it then goes into detail on the negative points too. Relating to the Article I can certainly relate to a number of points in the article, having had to be fetched from my office on various occasions when alarms have sounded without my noticing them. It might be possible to write some of these down to my deafness, but not the problems where we've lost lighting power (without wall outlet power), o...

A little while ago, I was asked to explain what the main differences were between aspie and NT Communication, specifically in terms of what each party receives. We're always being told that Aspies miss non-verbal cues and that they're distracted but do aspies actually pick up more or less elements in conversation? Here are a couple of lists for comparison based on a normal office desk conversation. What the NT Gets Voice Facial Expression Verbal Tone Body Language and Posture What the person is wearing Any sufficiently loud or disruptive intrusions What the Aspie Gets The Voice Non-verbals in a single swoop (discussed below) The books on the bookshelf behind the talker Other people in the room The Flashing lights on their hard drive Traffic outside the office Nice (Groovy) Patterns on the person's tie The Logo on their glasses Scuff marks on their shoes The Screen Saver on the PC behind them. It's my belief that aspies generally pick up much more of the surroundings...

Hi and Welcome to 2009. There was a great article on Sensory Overload posted yesterday that I feel I need to draw your attention to; The Post in Question is; Sensory overload: An insider’s perspective http://www.aspergerjourneys.com/2009/01/02/sensory-overload-an-insiders-perspective/ and the Blog itself is called Asperger Journeys . I'd highly recommend it. This post says a lot about sensory overload that I hadn't really given much thought to. For instance, the words Sensory Overload had always triggered the notion of "shutdown" in me. Since I very rarely experience shutdown, my natural extreme reaction is generally meltdown, I figured that I didn't experience Sensory Overload . From the description in this article however, I'm beginning to wonder if I do. Perhaps it doesn't have to reach boiling point before it's called an overload. Certainly, I often find myself in a crowded place with my skin tingling and my head racing like I've got a feve...

A fellow blogger Pink has discussed the Vaccine theory on her blog . One thing that I found interesting was her suggestion that Astrology is about as relevant. I'm not a great believer in astrology at all but I'm willing to try anything - particularly during the holiday season. I put my details in and was astounded by the results. No... I'm still not ready to believe but... wow... the results hit a nerve and IMHO, they show that any set of results can be twisted to fit a given situation. If you want to give it a try, then here's the URL; http://www.alabe.com/freechart/ The Report Here's my report. I've highlighted some areas I found interesting. Name: Gavin Rising Sign is in 20 Degrees Virgo You tend to be very shy and not very self-assertive . You are supercritical about how you appear to others. Even though you may think you are uninteresting and dull, you are actually quite soft- spoken, orderly, neat and very likable. You are a perfectionist with high sta...

A Quick Thank-You In all probability, this will be my last post before Christmas, possibly the last for the year so before I start, I'd just like to thank all of my readers and especially the people who left comments. Those comments helped steer this blog in different - and sometimes quite unexpected directions. Your input was greatly appreciated and has ensured that this years journey has been an interesting and relevant one. The Christmas Pressures There's a lot to be said for the social pressures of Christmas and in my family this has been a particular problem over the years. There is always a power struggle with my mother-in-law who feels that Christmas lunch is her exclusive domain. Even when, after years of struggling I gave up trying to share (every second year) and moved my immediate family permanently to boxing day, the pressure didn't cease - and this year is no exception. The pressure may be coming from outside but I've noticed that over the years my wife an...