Garrett - Asperger's and ADHD

"Individuals with AS can exhibit a variety of characteristics and the disorder can range from mild to severe. Persons with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and very often the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space. Often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see. It's important to remember that the person with AS perceives the world very differently. Therefore, many behaviors that seem odd or unusual are due to those neurological differences and not the result of intentional rudeness or bad behavior, and most certainly not the result of "improper parenting.

By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals (although not all), exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific area. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naiveté, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and some children sound like "little professors." However, persons with AS can be extremely literal and have difficulty using language in a social context".

We have know for a long time that Garrett marched to his own little drum. But when he started preschool in Florida at 4 they had us take him to 'child-find' to have him evaluated. It showed up that something wasn't right. He ended up that he was delayed cognitively. We ended up taking him to see some Dr's and there it was determined that he more than likely had Asperger's on top of ADD or ADHD. He met many of the signs, but being 4 he was still a bit young for them to determine things yet.

We then moved to Pennsylvania and they do not have the services for special needs children like they did in Florida but we did get him into a four day (half days) program, but it was geared more toward severe autistic children. But Garrett thrived in this environment. But they determined his special needs percentage had dropped so therefore he no longer qualified.

Then his Dad got deployed to Iraq and he started kindergarten. By the luck of the stars and God we had a wonderful and caring teacher, Mrs. Hagg! She knew what was going on but wanted to watch him. And she did and worked with him for six months but then told me it was time for more evaluations, etc. And that is what we did. It was then determined that he definitely had ADHD on top of having the PDD (pervasive developmental disorder). At this point he was put on medicine, which made a HUGE difference.

Garrett meets many of the 'classic' signs for AS. He is a 'little professor', he is quirky, he does tend to not understand that others need space, and socially he can be inept. But on the other hand he is sweet and loving and very giving. But the tradgedy is this difference brings heartache for him (and mommy). Kids are mean to him. And now with age, I've watched adults do it also. And this is adults who I've explained what is going on. And also the children who treat him bad, I've explained to their parents also.

So now, in a nutshell maybe you can understand what we are trying to deal with. I did join an AS support group this weekend. My first meet will be on 26 April and then we will have a Family night on 2 May. I'm excited because Garrett will meet people like him and Justin will meet kids who have siblings like he has.

I read this:

"Asperger's Syndrome is nothing to be ashamed of. It is not a death sentence, nor a character defect. The fact is that AS is a NEUROBIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCE".

And what I'm discovering, as Garrett's advocate, is that I MUST help other people understand this and educate them on this and hope that they can educate their children on this so maybe we can make it easier for us to live where we are.