One of my brothers has Asperger’s Syndrome. He was not diagnosed until after he became an adult. He is now in his 30’s. Not as much about Asperger’s Syndrome, autism, or the autism spectrum was recognized or understood then, compared with what we know now. Most people today have at least heard the term Asperger’s Syndrome before. When my brother was a child, people thought he was odd, but did not have any context to explain why he was so different from other kids his age.
I think most of our family realized that something about my brother was atypical for children his age. Loud sounds startled him. My father would yell at the football game on television, and my brother would cry, or leave the room and hide behind furniture in a different part of the house.
He knew absolutely everything about video games, (which, at the time, meant Ms. Pac Man, and the first few Mario games by Nintendo), and would talk about them for hours. He didn’t seem to recognize when the person he spoke to was bored, or trying to change the subject. He memorized the pattern of every stage of every game. Watching another person play a video game was extremely difficult for him. He would become excited, and flap his hands rapidly up and down, as he tried to direct the person who was playing the game.
He eventually was able to make friends, but they were few. Often, he could not tell me the name of this friend. It was as though that bit of information was unimportant to him. His friends were always several years younger than he was, and the one thing they had in common was a love of video games.
The school he went to was just getting their special education classes set up. To be placed in this classroom, one had to score below a certain point range on an IQ test. My brother was absolutely brilliant, so he didn’t qualify for any special education assistance. School was difficult for him. He refused to write out the work for the math problems that were assigned as homework. He knew the answer instantly, and couldn’t understand why the teacher needed to see all that extra stuff. It was a constant struggle to get him to do any form of written work. He didn’t see the point.
In fifth grade, he started to play the violin, but this was short lived. He quickly memorized any sheet music he was handed. He could start at any point in the piece, and play from that point to the end, or backwards, to the beginning, perfectly. He only needed to view the sheet music once, or hear the song played one time, to do this. His music teacher was devastated when my brother quit playing the violin, because its was “boring”. It was too easy for him.
If my brother were a child today, he would have a much easier time in school than what he went through Today, there is a term for what he has, and this term is recognized by a lot of people. Now, he would get the help he needed in school. Back then, everyone just thought he was strange.
Image by Joe Madonna