Life in the Spectrum

    I wrote this article for kids ages 10 and up to create awareness about their peers who are in the autism spectrum.  My objective is for them to relate to those with hidden disabilities (actually, I'd like to call it challenges instead of disabilities) with love and acceptance.  It is heartwrenching to see kids within the autism spectrum being left out with no friends in the crowd because some kids just don't understand.  The article below is specific to Asperger's Syndrome:

Spying Aspies

  Aspies?  Maybe this is the first time you heard or saw this word.  This is a pretty new word.  But “aspies” is more than a word.  They are people.  It is a term some people coined for those who have Asperger’s Syndrome.  Asperger’s Syndrome is a personality disability marked by social isolation.  This means they have some problems communicating and interacting with other people or situations in a normal way.  Boys are three to four times more likely than girls to have Asperger’s.  You may not know it, but you may be sitting next to one, or friends with some, or maybe you are one.  They are very interesting, intriguing though sometimes annoying.  Aspies leave us wondering, asking, gasping “What’s up with them?”  A lot of times they are talked about as “weird’ or “strange.” That’s why it is important to understand them because they are unique and wonderful people. 

There are a lot of signs of an aspie but I will give the most unique one.  The best clue to spy an aspie is his or her very strong interest in a single object or topic. Have you met someone who really like trains or the solar system or dinosaurs or vacuum cleaners or something else and you cannot stop them talking about it?  This person can possibly be an aspie!  Aspies want to know everything about their topic and can tell you many facts about it endlessly.  They are very good at picking up details and gather enormous amounts of information about their favorite subject.  When they talk, they are like little professors with high level of vocabulary and speech patterns.  Sometimes they can get annoying saying the same things over and over.  They talk a lot!  They can be insensitive to taking turns in a conversation.  They often dominate with their information about their topic.  Most of the conversations then become one-sided.  They can sometimes be misunderstood as rude.  But they don’t do it on purpose.  It is just how their brain works.  They often do not notice that the person they talk to has lost interest in the subject.  

Interestingly, many of the aspies have an above-average intelligence.  They are very smart and a lot of them have become experts in their field of interests.  In fact, so many successful people seem to have the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome.  Some historians suggest that Einstein and Mozart may have both been aspies.   

Knowing these behaviors, it can help us spot around us who can be an aspie.  By scratching the surface and spying some facts about them, we can now understand why they behave the way they do.  They will continue to amaze us, to intrigue us or even annoy us at times but now we know how to deal with them, help them and accept them the way they are.   They are fearfully and wonderfully made by God's loving hands.

All rights reserved. Odette Navarro 2013.