AUTISM ALL-STARS: How We Use Our Autism and Asperger Traits to Shine in Life
AUTISM ALL-STARS, How We Use Our Autism and Asperger Traits to Shine in Life.
Edited by Josie Santomauro If you are a "normal" person, you might see little point to reading a book about Asperger Syndrome.
Yet if you do read it, you will be surprised at how the people in this book gradually overcame their limitations to become experts in their own field.
More importantly you will widen your understanding of other people who appear different.
We are all different, unique, so let us try to enlarge our inclusiveness, rather than dismiss these people as "weird".
This non-fiction book allows nine people with various forms of Autism or Asperger Syndrome to tell their stories.
All of them suffered greatly in school, as ninety-five percent of Asperger Syndrome children are bullied.
Autism and Asperger Syndrome are not cut and dried, the term often used is "on the spectrum"; like the spectrum of light, ranging from severe to mild.
People with Asperger Syndrome, often call each other "Aspie", and once again the spectrum is wide, right out to savant -- where you get individuals who, while generally thought to be intellectually impaired, show unheard of brilliance in one particular area, like mathematics.
But it's not just a matter of being bullied, their problems are rarely understood.
Most of these people were not diagnosed as Autistic until they were 30 years or older! During school years they were labelled as lazy, stupid, day-dreamers, uncooperative -- and yet all these people possessed extraordinary mental qualities in specific areas.
It appears, from reading their stories, that they lack "normal" mental skills in general areas, but often excel in particular areas.
They focus all their energies on one subject, often excelling in that subject.
And perhaps that is part of the problem -- all their mental energy is focussed in one area, while many other areas are drained of mental power.
Their biggest difficulty is in social relationships, communication, and body-language.
They do not pick up on things like sarcasm, irony, jokes, or even metaphors.
Conversation can be difficult, knowing when to start, when to stop, when to hold your tongue, so often they say nothing rather than something out of place.
There are many books that tell you how important it is to learn body-language.
I have always doubted this.
If we did not instinctively understand body-language, then it would not work, it would be pointless and it would not exist.
We do understand it, we use it instinctively, we don't need a book to tell us what a person constantly looking at their watch during a conversation means.
We know.
Body-language is learnt along with spoken language, except if you are Autistic.
So maybe some good can come from those body-language books after all.
Autistic people study them and find out that a raised eyebrow actually does mean something.
Yes, this is what some Autistic people are doing, learning how to interact in society, not by intuition, but by writing down the "rules".
Lord knows the rules are complex enough -- for all of us! The stories are all interesting, and give you an insight into people "on the spectrum".
Not all are successful in integrating into society, while others do brilliantly in their chosen field.
Reading this book made me start to wonder about some of the people I have met in life, and although no one ever suggested they were "on the spectrum" I have to wonder: people who have difficult relationships with the opposite sex, with employment, with emotions, with social communication; people who are fixated on a small area of life, whether it is music, drawing, or Dr Who.
When you start to look into Autism - Asperger, you begin to think that there are probably some aspects of Asperger Syndrome in most of us, it is a matter of degree.
One per cent of the population (in all countries) can be classified as on the spectrum of Autistic - Asperger Syndrome.
Each human on this planet, has different qualities, different abilities, different failings, it can only do society good to be more inclusive, to understand that we are not all clones, to accept that, and to do our best to accommodate everyone into a valid place in society.
After all, look at the contribution made by one man: unable to speak without a voice synthesiser, unable to walk, lift a finger, or feed himself; only able to communicate by the movement of his eyes -- and yet Stephen Hawking has given us a new understanding of the universe.
Edited by Josie Santomauro If you are a "normal" person, you might see little point to reading a book about Asperger Syndrome.
Yet if you do read it, you will be surprised at how the people in this book gradually overcame their limitations to become experts in their own field.
More importantly you will widen your understanding of other people who appear different.
We are all different, unique, so let us try to enlarge our inclusiveness, rather than dismiss these people as "weird".
This non-fiction book allows nine people with various forms of Autism or Asperger Syndrome to tell their stories.
All of them suffered greatly in school, as ninety-five percent of Asperger Syndrome children are bullied.
Autism and Asperger Syndrome are not cut and dried, the term often used is "on the spectrum"; like the spectrum of light, ranging from severe to mild.
People with Asperger Syndrome, often call each other "Aspie", and once again the spectrum is wide, right out to savant -- where you get individuals who, while generally thought to be intellectually impaired, show unheard of brilliance in one particular area, like mathematics.
But it's not just a matter of being bullied, their problems are rarely understood.
Most of these people were not diagnosed as Autistic until they were 30 years or older! During school years they were labelled as lazy, stupid, day-dreamers, uncooperative -- and yet all these people possessed extraordinary mental qualities in specific areas.
It appears, from reading their stories, that they lack "normal" mental skills in general areas, but often excel in particular areas.
They focus all their energies on one subject, often excelling in that subject.
And perhaps that is part of the problem -- all their mental energy is focussed in one area, while many other areas are drained of mental power.
Their biggest difficulty is in social relationships, communication, and body-language.
They do not pick up on things like sarcasm, irony, jokes, or even metaphors.
Conversation can be difficult, knowing when to start, when to stop, when to hold your tongue, so often they say nothing rather than something out of place.
There are many books that tell you how important it is to learn body-language.
I have always doubted this.
If we did not instinctively understand body-language, then it would not work, it would be pointless and it would not exist.
We do understand it, we use it instinctively, we don't need a book to tell us what a person constantly looking at their watch during a conversation means.
We know.
Body-language is learnt along with spoken language, except if you are Autistic.
So maybe some good can come from those body-language books after all.
Autistic people study them and find out that a raised eyebrow actually does mean something.
Yes, this is what some Autistic people are doing, learning how to interact in society, not by intuition, but by writing down the "rules".
Lord knows the rules are complex enough -- for all of us! The stories are all interesting, and give you an insight into people "on the spectrum".
Not all are successful in integrating into society, while others do brilliantly in their chosen field.
Reading this book made me start to wonder about some of the people I have met in life, and although no one ever suggested they were "on the spectrum" I have to wonder: people who have difficult relationships with the opposite sex, with employment, with emotions, with social communication; people who are fixated on a small area of life, whether it is music, drawing, or Dr Who.
When you start to look into Autism - Asperger, you begin to think that there are probably some aspects of Asperger Syndrome in most of us, it is a matter of degree.
One per cent of the population (in all countries) can be classified as on the spectrum of Autistic - Asperger Syndrome.
Each human on this planet, has different qualities, different abilities, different failings, it can only do society good to be more inclusive, to understand that we are not all clones, to accept that, and to do our best to accommodate everyone into a valid place in society.
After all, look at the contribution made by one man: unable to speak without a voice synthesiser, unable to walk, lift a finger, or feed himself; only able to communicate by the movement of his eyes -- and yet Stephen Hawking has given us a new understanding of the universe.