Aspergian Tales

It’s a question I get sometimes from parents or teachers. Doctors tend to word it a little differently. But the answer is… from birth. No, even before birth. At 19 weeks I went on bedrest with pre-term contractions. Nothing every happened but I guess my little Aspie liked bouncing around an awful lot.

She is very petite and was always on the 0 to 10% percentile for growth. We took her in regularly to make sure she was growing. She was, just on a very small scale. She was picky. I remember her as a toddler dancing around the room in her diaper and my mother saying, “She just dances to the beat of her own drum.” And it was a very true statement.

By the time she was five and in kindergarten we learned that she actually was different from her peers. I would get nearly weekly phone calls from the teacher. The teacher said my Aspie was very bright and knew the answers, but she wouldn’t do the worksheets and she kept getting distracted by everything. She would also cry, a lot. And she would nearly miss the bus every day. My Aspie moves at her own speed and no matter how much you say, “quick, quick, like a bunny” and clap your hands it doesn’t do much.

We took her to a psychologist who said she was young and immature and that really all he could say is that she had ADD – with no hyperactivity. My Aspie tended to sit and focus on something for hours, even foregoing trips to the restroom while in her obsession. He told us that ADD was like a bucket that these days everything got tossed into. He said that when she got older we could test her more accurately.
In the second grade we were blessed by a wonderful teacher. She called us in one day and said that she had been working with ADD and special needs children for 15 years and my Aspie didn’t have ADD, she said that she likely had a social disorder, perhaps Asperger’s.

I took her to the doctor and the doctor recommended a pediatric neuro-psych eval. Well, one psych eval later and we find out she’s got Asperger’s with above average intelligence and skills, except for deficiencies in math. Now that we know what she faces, it’s easier to work with her and help her do better. She has sensory difficulties and easily gets overwhelmed at school, we had to initiate an IEP plan to help her do better in school and this year she has no D’s or F’s. That is truly something!