Ok that's a wild statement and also untrue.
I don't wish we had Asperger's Syndrome around here.
It gets old though, as increasingly it seems that every time I tell someone my sons are severely autistic someone will pull some Asperger's person out of their ass and compare them to my sons.
Them:"Oh my friend's cousin's son has Asperbergers and he has a hard time making friends."
Me:"Really? Cuz my twins are seven and don't talk and wear diapers. Oh and they don't understand the concept of friends. So yes, I can see that it's exactly the same. Your friend's cousin's son should hang out with us."
It's really never the actually people with Asperger's or immediate family who are afflicted, who pull statements like that out. It's the people who see Aspererger's on TV and think that is what Autism IS.
Asperger's might be autism but autism is not Asperger's.
I'm ranty. It's because I'm tired and hot. It's also because I just sat next to these people who eyeballed the twins a couple of weeks ago with disgust like we are bad parents. I didn't pull out the autism card on them. I just let it go. Judge away.
But back to my point. It's this. They call Autism and it's many many many manifestations "The Spectrum". Ever wonder why?
I'm here to explain. I'm feeling helpful.
It's because autism isn't ONE thing. It's not like Strep which can be defined and looked at under a microscope (ok that's kind of untrue they are finding some genetic markers but that's a different subject). Autism is simply, a whole bunch of various kinds of developmental delay all lumped together.
At one end of the rainbow - you've got those "classic" autism kids you remember from days of yore. Staring at the wall, not communicating, rocking whatever. They LOOK fine but they are NOT. That's the worst case. We're not that bad. /me knocks on wood.
At the other end - are the "High Functioning" autistics - of which the Asperger Folks are part. They talk. They have relationships. Many go to "regular" schools but have social challenges. But developmentally - they're like astronauts compared to my boys.
I have a 15 month old baby girl. I am watching her quest for language, her thirst for it, out pace theirs. Within the next year she'll be talking. Hell within the next six months she'll talk more than they do. She already TRIES to communicate more than they do.
Media is partly to blame. Cuz kids who say "OPEN THE MOUTH" over and over for two hours after having been told to do so at dinner are not as TV appealing as say, the dude from American Idol. But, I'm here to tell you.....
some of us, would give anything, if all it was, was Asperger's.
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