New Autism Discovery

[Maria]

That’s an impressive story, Skylover. I would never have guessed when I met you last year that you went through anything like that. Kudos to you and to your parents. 😉

[Katherine]

Skylover wrote:

Ok, here’s a chance to understand how it is from an autistic child’s point of view. This is hard for me to talk about, but I think that I tell a side of the story that is often missing. Sorry DM, I have eye problems as well, and they are nothing like this whatsoever.

When I was young I was diagnosed with Aspergers. My parents were pretty much told that I was retarded and wouldn’t amount to anything. My parents had to fight long, hard battles with the school administration and teachers to get me the help that I needed. My kindergarten teacher did not want me in her class when she fist heard about me, and my mother had to tell her that she needed to meet me and get to know me before she could judge me. My girl scout troup leader just hated me. I was teased by most of the kids I went to school with and spent my recesses wandering alone. Almost everyone in society pretty much labelled me as a retard and gave up on me. This was despite the fact that I could get A’s and B’s in my classes, was advanced in math, and had artistic talent. Believe me, I understood very well what everyone thought of me, and it hurt so bad that I didn’t want to interact with anyone.

My parents, however, never gave up on me. They did what it took to get the school to provide the help that I needed. I was taken out of class and forced to interact one-on-one with special ed. teachers, and I was left in public school and forced to interact with other kids.

I’m sure this process was slow and painful for everyone involved, but gradually it worked. I started to come out of my shell and gradually learned how to deal with people. I learned that I had many talents that others did not, and this helped boost my confidence. By high school I was rarely teased and I was able to deal with it when I was. I had staight A’s and was able to help out others. A couple years ago, I graduated from college and got a job as an engineer at Lockheed.

While every autistic child may not be capable of this (there are varying degrees of autism), I do want to say that there is definately more going on than most people would imagine.

Wow! Thank you for sharing that! It’s great as to how much you accomplished despite the setbacks from teachers and peers.

[Author]

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