As most of you probably know this is a Daily aspect of my life and like everything I hear I like to learn more about it. For 2 years now I’ve been helping my son and the rest of my family cope with this disability. Education on it has helped tremendously and I find the more people that know of it the better we can all deal with it. Some of the information presented is from my own experience and may not be typical for all people with this disease.
Ok first off what is Asperger’s? This is a genetic neurological condition where the brain is wired differently. It is classified in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and treated in much the same way.
People with this condition generally perceive the world in a unique way. They have difficulty with social interaction and default to stereotypical patterns of behaviour to compensate for an overwhelming amount of information their brain is dealing with.
Usually is it diagnosed in children by the symptoms of atypical and delayed speech, lack of nonverbal communication skills, failure to demonstrate empathy, and physical clumsiness. What this really means is they will speak later in childhood and use words or groups of words in a different manner then typical. Usually the person with aspergers has trouble maintaining eye contact and cannot stay still while in a conversation. My Son trips over his shadow and falls of chairs from wiggling too much.
This does NOT make someone with Aspergers mentally disabled. They may think and talk differently but their level of knowledge can actually exceed that of typical people. This may have to do with the tendency to be fixated on a subject. As they age the restriction becomes more and more complex making them border on genius for that subject.
People with Aspergers find comfort in restricted and repetitive behaviour. Routine is key for them and they will not know how to deal with sudden changes. When in an uncomfortable social environment they may tend to fall on their fixated restricted subject as THE only topic of conversation.
It is also speculated that ASD may be due to heightened senses. People in the spectrum often notice things others don’t. They may also hear and feel differently. Our son often has to cover his ears in strong winds as the noise is an overload. His clothing must be long sleeve cotton or he’ll break out in a rash. He points out things in everyday life we take for granted and may not have noticed. It is a pure joy to try and see the world from his point of view. A very fresh perspective.
Some of the things we do to help him is to enhance his cognitive behaviours to improve his stress management and relieve anxiety by distracting him with other visual and tactile stimuli. Generally this is some toy he has with him that can calm him and help him focus.
We sees an occupational therapist to help build social stories and deal with situations. They work on sensory integration of these situations to deal with preparing for an experience. We also work on fine motor skills as dealing with details is a focused battle. Printing is a chore that requires tremendous effort but his ideas are brilliant if he can put them down.
I wouldn’t even want to cure him as that is personality. As I said his perspective is a joy even if his (and our) stress is increased. Life isn’t all about being normal and in a way we all have a bit of aspergers in us.
One final note I’d like to make is a reminder that this is a genetic disorder. Anytime you see Jenny McCarthy on TV talking about it yell at her that she’s full of poo and turn the channel. By no means is she any kind of expert in anything.
Side Note: wordpress spellchecker doesn’t even know Aspergers exists.
