Has to be...

I've just finished this book edited by Linda Andron and have found the most enlightening chapter yet, of all that I've read. Chapter 5 'How to Speak Asperger's' by Fran Goldfarb with Guthrie Devine, spoke so directly to me and my son that I am convinced it must be Asperger's.

There were so many examples of her son's behaviour in this chapter and it echoed so much of my son. Particulary the paragraph in which she says that if something is true once, then for the child with AS it is true forever. This would explain why we've lost our special treats, as they seem to need to happen the same day every week, even though it was meant to be a 'special' treat, why Friday nights staying up later is sooooo important every single week, and generally, why things can get so confusing for my son, when everything changes.

I especially loved the paragraph where she discusses the trouble with social rules in a classroom or other group situations, where if her son, like mine, is interested in what is going on, he has trouble understanding that he isn't the only one that the teacher is speaking to and ends up shouting out answers like a conversation rather than a lesson. And he usually knows the answer, alot of the time before anyone has even taught it, and he's quite willing to tell everyone about it as well! This has all given me the dawning realisation that his 'inability' to sit still in class is not due to ADHD, but rather his own need to follow his interests, unfortunately to the detriment of the rest of the class.

What I need now is to learn to speak Asperger's myself, because although this chapter led to so many 'ah hah's' it is still very hard and frustrating at times, which makes it that much more frustrating for my son too.