Cissi Tsang www.samarobryn.com There have been various studies and speculation abounding regarding the relationship between the autism spectrum and the schizophrenia spectrum. That is not surprising because there are some similarities in behaviours between the two. Both conditions feature such things as social withdrawal, difficulty with empathy and difficulty with reading verbal and non-verbal cues. What happens if both conditions collide and exist together within a person? This is an area that is not often explored. It is almost as if the population of people who have both an autism spectrum diagnosis and a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis do not exist in the minds of most people. However — such people do exist. I am one of them. I have Asperger’s syndrome, as well as Schizoaffective Disorder. How can it be, though? I must note that the DSM-IV-TR does note this possibility. Although rare, it does happen. With this article, I…
Tag: Aspergers syndrome
Sarah Macleod quarksandquirks.wordpress.com findingmygrounduu.wordpress.com aspergersathome.com “I love you,” I’d say. “I love you, too,” he’d reply, often snuggling into me speaking the sentiment with his body as much with his words. It’s been over two years since we’ve shared that exchange. Two years — perhaps three — since I’ve heard Bryce, my son with Aspergers, now 10, tell me he loves me. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. If I said that it was just words and that I don’t care about the words, my nose would grow like mad. Truth is, I know he loves me, but I ache to hear him say it again. On a recent night around the dinner table during a visit with my mother, the subject of love arose. Bryce pronounced, “I don’t love anyone.” Now, my mom is hip to the blunt mannerisms of my Aspie son, so she didn’t…
Rory Patton springingtiger.wordpress.com Most sick benefit seekers ‘are fit enough to work,” the London Evening Standard recently reported, in a very short summary of the report by The Department for Work and Pensions. The article quotes the Work and Pensions Minister Steve Webb as saying that many people are “able to work with the right help,” and that, “Those who cannot work will always receive our unconditional support but for those who can work it’s right they get the help they need to get into employment.” The implication of the article seems to be that people are claiming benefits dishonestly. The Work and Pensions Select Committee expressed concern at the way claimants are portrayed by the media as “work shy.” The report of the select committee also raises concerns that the new procedures have not been adequately explained to claimants leaving some disabled people concerned that the goal is merely…
Carrie Arick poopingredguy.blogspot.com Today, I have been working on updating my family calendar, whittling down our to-do list and brain storming exactly how I am going to explain Asperger’s syndrome to my sister who will be staying with us while the husband is in the hospital and during his recovery process. It is all a little overwhelming (I seem to use this descriptor on a daily basis these days) seeing how our calendar is expanding into next year July, my to-do list keeps having baby to-do lists and nothing about autism seems to be simple. Being tired of being overwhelmed, I am starting feel a little snarky and well, it does not take me much to feel irritated. Being that I am the most unorganized person in the universe, the calendar and to-do lists are in messy piles around my computer. I have scrap papers with dates, phone numbers, and…
Joan T. Hocky Expectation: The act or state of looking forward or anticipating Surprise: To strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment Two stories: 1. A girl grows up in Port Arthur, Texas. On the surface, she has a nice, middle class life: dad is an engineer, mom is a registrar at the local college and she has two protective older sisters. But life is anything but easy. She’s overweight with acne and long stringy hair and the kids in school all tease her for being ugly and weird. She spends hours every night holed up in her room, listening to Bessie Smith sing the blues and imagining life as an artist or musician, somewhere far away from where she lives. She finishes high school, goes off to college (UT Austin, the flagship school), but things are no better—even in a big university town. Lonely…
Elaine Park Our house is frequently really loud, as my seventh grade son, Drew*, races his long fingers at break-neck speed and top volume, up and down the piano, pounding out the Imperial March from Star Wars or some original composition of his own. His fingers are fast and strong, dexterous and coordinated. They are equally skilled at piecing together intricate creations out of his world-class Lego collection. But because of a neurological quirk, this same child can’t tie his own shoes and has difficulty writing with a pencil or pen. He has a lot to say and wants to share it, but the frustration of handwriting often reduces him to despair, and is a frequent problem when it comes to completing language arts assignments. Like many parents of a child on the autism spectrum, I hope this can be resolved by his learning to type. Once Drew has…
Sarah MacLeod quarksandquirks.wordpress.com findingmygrounduu.wordpress.com My younger son had a rocky start, with a changing set of labels. At two months, it was colic. At 12 months, he was a “fussy baby.” By four, hypontonicity, sensory processing disorder, convergence disorder, and possible PPD-NOS entered the scene. At six, a psychologist evaluated his cognitive skills and “profound giftedness” joined the party. At nine, he returned to the psychologist for treatment for anxiety and tantrums. Recently, at the end of three frustrating months, the psychologist added Asperger’s syndrome to the list. We — his father and I — had known for years that he was an unusual child. From the start, I scoured bookstores and libraries, searching for answers to or at least a name for what made my younger son so uncomfortable in the world. The answers had to be somewhere in print, I figured. My bookshelf, computer, library card, and I…
How do you tell your child he has autism? Or, how do you tell your child he has autism when perhaps you are just hearing the information for the first time too? We asked some questions on our TPGA online community page and got some great answers. We also asked whether our community would be watching NBC’s, Parenthood last week when the topic was a featured story. A young boy, Max (Max Burkholder) discovers he has Asperger’s when he hears his father Adam (Peter Krause) yelling at his Uncle Crosby. Adam shouts “Get it through your thick skull, your nephew has Asperger’s!” Looking down from the stairs, Max says, “I have Asperger’s? What is…Asperger’s?” Stunned, the adults were speechless. In the storyline, the parents, Adam and Kristina (Monica Potter) have apparently known for a while that their son has Asperger’s but decided he was too young to be told about…
Christina Goodney Bailey My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when he was four. The first time someone suggested that Sam might have autism was just after his second birthday. Between those two milestones, we saw two pediatricians, a developmental pediatrician, and a speech pathologist, with inconclusive results. For two years, my husband and I rode a seesaw of emotions, playing “Does He or Doesn’t He Have Autism.” When Sam spontaneously shared his blueberries with a playmate, we breathed easier. When he spun a rattle repeatedly, we worried. When Sam imitated me sweeping, I called my husband triumphantly. When he had a meltdown on the playground after another child attempted to interact with him, I left quickly and did not mention the incident to anyone. We combed the Internet, reading countless checklists designed to alert parents to behaviors that might point to autism. We were confused, as our son seemed…
Sam Keller www.scrappysam.com It was the night of the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at our church. As the pastor’s wife, I am generally required to attend these sorts of things with the unspoken expectation to always smile, be nice, and glow with the joy of the Lord, even if I have to, dare I say … fake it. I was running late that evening, overwrought with juggling three kids, sports practice, and a cranky baby. My plastered-on smile thinly hid tears of frustration leaking out my nose. As I stood and perused the room full of familiar faces, the tension in my spirit only clogged my throat more. I felt like an intruder interrupting a play in the second act. The crowd was engaged in conversation and gaiety and I felt like I was barging in with a bag full of awkward. I stood on the outside, trying to find the…