I know for sure that Bambi Haffensplaffer and The Man with the Golden Gun have asperger’s, but is there any others out there?
Me, I think. Either Asperger’s or borderline autism.
Perhaps ‘a touch’… according to my counselor. Wasn’t there a thread about this a while back?
I do not but my three and a half year old daughter has autism. Your OP caught my eye quick…
Yeah, a Ask The thread. I recall you posting in it.
Yup, another one here. Well, actually my dx is HFA, but that’s the same or similar to AS so the difference isn’t meaningful (to me, anyway or for this thread)
Kid Czarcasm has Asperger"s, as do I.
Some people say I do, but looking at the signs list it’s very scattershot as to whether I meet them or not. Unless I have asperger’s and ADD and Very Sensitive Person all at the same time 
I found the other thread.
Not officially, but my spouse and I both meet most of the criteria (me more than he). Dweezil is official AS/HFA, which is how Papa Zappa and I learned about it and realized it explained a LOT about our childhoods.
[size=1]I remember once at a party, arguing with papa zappa, about whose “fault” it was. We were both claiming responsibility.
What is HFA?
“High-Functioning Autism”. I think.
When my daughter was going in for some counseling, I was asked to fill out a form on my personality traits. There were a lot of odd questions that seemed to fit me perfectly. I got to wondering what they were getting at so I did some searches and ran across Aspergers. From all of the screening tests online (yeah, I know) the indications are that I do have the right personality traits for it. When I read other people’s stories about how they cope I said “Hey! That’s ME!” It also seems that autism may run in my family, since my nephew is autistic.
I have not had any official diagnosis. I am not sure if there is really a need to do so, since if I have it it is mild enough that I can still function, although social interactions are still largely a mystery to me. Right now, it is enough for me to know that there are other people who feel that they are playing a game where everyone else knows the rules except me.
Would any of you do me a HUGE favor and describe some of your childhood for me? I’m very concerned about my daughter and her future. Did you receive any therapies while growing up, were you in any special, early schooling programs? I do everything I can to make sure my daughter will have the best future she can but I get depressed sometimes and wish that I could get a glimpse of her future right now to see how she may function later. She’s just “autistic”, not Asperger’s but she’s higher functioning than some children in her class. She’s has great eye contact and is trying to speak (since she turned three, she’s really been trying hard to mimic me and communicate). She initiates games and activities with me and loves to play with cause and effect toys.
I know I’m seriously hijacking this thread but I’m a very interested parent. Thank you for anything you can contribute.
I had a discussion with my counselor last weekend about Aspergers and the “autism spectrum”.
The first I heard of Aspergers Syndrome was a mention in the Jargon File about a rise in diagnoses of Aspergers in Silicon Valley. The mention wondered whether Aspergers was perhaps a method of naming and pathologising a different way of seeing and apprehending the world, rather than a ‘real disease’.
Last summer I’d stumbled across Temple Grandin’s book about her life designing the cattle feedlots and killing facilities. I was startled when skimming it in the bookshop that a) she thought visually, and b) this was considered abnormal.
Some of the other things she described seemed familiar to me as well (though much more intense than in my experience): difficulty in dealing with intensity in the world, difficulty in connecting to others via social skills, even the comfort given by pressure (I like heavy bedclothes too). I immediately bought the book.
I lent the book to my counselor, continued digging for more information on the net, and found and forwarded several links to him. Around this time, my counselor said to me that he thought I might have a touch of Aspergers. Up until early last year, I’d been in a group-counselling environment for some years, essentially to learn socail skills and get used to emotional intensity. It helped a lot, but ultimately there was some way in which I just wasn’t beaking through to connection with others–or perceiving connection that did exist–and I stopped going.
In our discussion last weekend, my counselor mentioned that many ways I speak sometimes seem odd, and tends to put off others, especially in social situations. A lot of times when I speak, I’m basically describing a picture I have in my head, and apparently this leads to unusualness in phrasing. We went deeper into the topic, and eventually I got it through my head–intellectually at least–that he simply did not think visually. He said that the nearest he came to the kind of images I always have in my head was during dreaming. I’m still not certain I completely believe him–how can you have only words in your head?
I am now thinking that this visual thinking is both an obstacle and my greatest gift.
SanguineSpider, I’d be glad to describe a bit of my childhood. I’m not sure it would help though–if I actually do have AS, it’s a lot milder than what I’ve read about.
In childhood, I was essentially in my own world. I learn to read early and was reading my sister’s grade nine books in kindergarten. I apparently started to speak late–at age three–but when I did, it wasn’t babytalk, apparently.
I would build my own things and wasn’t particularly interested in most group games. Being smart, I was pushed ahead a grade, and was therefore consistently physically smaller and less developed than my classmates. I was bullied a lot from late grade 6 to early grade 9, and this severely raised fear, wrecked my self-esteem, and hurt my development. I abandoned gym as soon as I could, for example (team sports were only a source of shame and ostracism for me), and as a result I’m much less physically fit than I might be, even though I was never particularly small compared to others of my own age.
Now, I don’t know how much my problems had to do with any potential Aspergers/PDD/general nerdiness, and how much had to do with being smart.
I’m inclined to think that most of my early problems were because of being smart–but difficulty in perceiving social cues certainly didn’t help. The social-perception-and-communication problem really came into its own later, during high school and university, when I became interested in women. In my forty years, I’ve only succeeded in having one girlfriend, and two almost-girlfriends, and even now, in the dating scene, I don’t get a lot of second dates. I’m doing better than I used to though; at least I get first dates now.
I jokingly mentioned to my counselor that the real solution to my social isolation problems would be to associate with more visual thinkers.
I’m not sure that that’s not such a bad idea. Now that I think about it, I met my one real girlfriend at art school…
High Functioning Autism.
Sanguine Spider -
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Would any of you do me a HUGE favor and describe some of your childhood for me?
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Although you seem to be pretty sure as of now - Autism, or possibly Asperger’s - find out exactly what the problem is before school. I was given a label of ADD in either grade 2 or 3. What I needed was a proper AND correct diagnosis(not to say your child’s diagnosis is incorrect) before school, as by grade 2 or 3(memory’s not too good, I am afraid) the situation was getting bad. I was doing remedial math and english, which I could easily do normally, but as a result of ritalin, was almost too hyper/distracted to do. Ritalin causes non-ADD people to be hyperactive.
A suggestion for a good method to teach social skills/appropriate responses: Since our rote memory tends to be good, I suggest teaching facial expressions and acting out scenes to get an idea of appropriate reactions, things like that. Go over them again and again. Make it a game, if you want.
That’s all I can thank of right now.
I think there is a book written by a woman with Autism, or HFA, about her experiences. I can’t remember the name of her or the book, but a neighbor of mine was her literary agent, so I will reach out to her to get the info. I am sure you folks probably know about it, but it might be insightful.
There is also the novel that came out last year, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time which was written from the perspective of a boy with Asberger’s and has won a lot of praise for its portrayal - apparently the author worked a lot with folks with Autism and Asberger’s and has some insight into their behaviors and perspectives. It might be worth reader to “get inside” the head of a loved one or read someone else’s depiction of the condition.
I am way out of my league here, but when I saw this thread, these two books came to mind so I thought I would mention them. Hope they are useful…
My daughter does not have Asperger’s, she is autistic. In some ways, she is high-functioning but in others, I’m not so sure. Potty-training is a nightmare and she is in the last size of diapers (I am about to check out specialty shops for larger).
She can say about 20-30 words but her some of her vowels are off and she does not finish her words (take the word “pop”, she can’t sound the P and doesn’t close her lips to end the word). She is just beginning to use a spoon to feed herself yogurt (she’s orally defensive as well as having tactile defensiveness on her palms and arms) and won’t touch sand without getting very upset.
She doesn’t “play” with other kids in a typical way. She mainly watches other kids without really interacting (not a huge deal to me, just something I noticed). She likes to play hide-n-seek with me, though, and likes to be chased by me (she’ll look back to see how close I am and laughs if I reach out for her) so I know she’s more “aware” than severely autistic children. She’ll grab a puzzle or book for me to read, and if I grab a different one, she’ll hand me the one SHE wanted. She has a sense of humor, if I do a funny face or sound, or dance funny, or if she sees something funny on TV… she’ll laugh spontaneously and it’s not inappropriate (“experts” have mentioned some autistic kids laugh or cry at inappropriate times but that seems like a yound child thing to me anyway).
It’s hard to put a true label to any of her traits. I took her in for her lack of speech and came out with autism. This was when she was almost two years old. I’m still confused, still frustrated by the lack of good info, still find myself getting depressed even with all the services she is receiving.
She has physical therapy, occupational therapy, Speech, Feeding (branch of speech therapy, deals with food textures and oral defensiveness), and music therapy (she LOVES music, loves to mimic song lyrics). She also is in an early preschool program with 5 other autistic kids and she was put into the older class because of her abilities (older class meaning 4 and 5 year olds, she’s 3 1/2).
I wonder if I’m putting her into too many things or not enough. She seems to be handling it all well enough, reaching some goals and still working on harder ones. It’s a very hard thing to guess at and I feel like that’s all I’m able to do… guess. That’s why I get upset, that’s why I worry. I would just like some answers, good SOLID answers sometimes. SIGH
Not sure if I count as a Doper (I lurk, mostly) ;-), but I’m definately Aspergers (or high-functioning autistic, whichever). I believe I was diagnosed in early elementary school or kindergarten after some meetings with what must have been psychologists. I looked it up a bit later on and seconded this diagnosis. It fit me well.
I’ve always been pretty much in my own world. I once said that I liked the idea of friendship more than actually having friends. Never considered getting a boyfriend (what do you do with those, anyway?) I’ve been known to get absorbed in repetitive tasks, or just stare off and be gone. I sometimes develop unusual obsessions, and enough time later completely lose interest. I’m very quiet, rarely speak; I often have trouble putting things into words, though I starting speaking fairly young. Other peoples’ misfortunes - particularly death - have no effect on me, other than a sense of “what should I say?” discomfort.
Peers have described my behaviour as eccentric and even creepy, which I get a kick out of since their behaviour sometimes strikes me as bizarre (mind, my peers are teenage girls - those are some weird people!) Thus, I have begun writing a series of essays on normal people’s behaviour from the point of view of someone who just arrived on Earth. Sometimes it comes as useful to be not-quite-normal, especially with my sense of humour.
Did I ramble?
Is the book you’re thinking of Nobody Nowhere by Donna Williams? I have that, but I haven’t read much of it yet.