when PDD/Asperger's is a blessing...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
when PDD/Asperger's is a blessing...
4
Fri, 10-19-2007 - 5:18am

As I teach a class on 'disability and society' to my undergraduate social policy and sociology students, and I am trying to teach them about the social model of disability and attitudes to impairment/illness/disability etc, I tried to think of an example of the positive side of not being NT (eg would Churchill have been a great leader had he not suffered depression etc) and I thought of this one. Because we have had to teach Euan, in a highly structured way, the 'appropriate' social and emotional response to things he can often be much better at displaying kindness and empathy than someone who had learned this the 'normal' way. For example, he was sick last night and I stayed up with him, holding his head while he puked, changing him, etc and finally getting him off to sleep. This morning he felt better, and he gave me a huge hug and said 'you are such a great mum for looking after me so well'. And I was up with his NT father all night with the same thing and it didn't even occur to him to tell me I was a great wife!! :-)


So, I know we share the frustrations of being a parent of a PDD/ Asperger's kid, so let's share some of the joy of it! What's your blessing today?


Another one is how great it is to play Cluedo with an Aspie, because they so rigidly stick to the rules they inadvertantly give everything away LOL :-)


Kirsty, mum to Euan (9, Asperger's) Rohan (4, NT) and Maeve (23m, NT)

Avatar for toryanna
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 10-19-2007 - 7:26am

Oh, there has been so many times AS has been a blessing, I don't know if I can just pick one. DH and I were watching a movie, and Vic walked in the room to "tell us something" during a line that he shouldn't have heard. Well, we paused the movie and tried to redirect him to his topic but he questioned us. He took a very subverted meaning to a statement very literally and that made the two of us laugh even harder. We of course had to explain it to him so his feelings wouldn't be hurt and our response we got was "Ew, MOTHER. Do you have to explain EVERYTHING I ask about?"


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Fri, 10-19-2007 - 10:16am
One of my favorite things to exploit about my special DS is his sharp memory, especially his visual memory.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 10-19-2007 - 1:55pm

I like that it's easy to hide presents from my AS kids because they don't go looking and 'cus I can hide stuff in front of their noses, and they don't notice.

I love their great memories (great memories for SOME things). Dh and my kids are my walking calendars. My NT ds is always complaining that he got MY memory!

I think that having AS kids has made me a more understanding person around other children. Until recently, I was in charge of the children's organization at church, and we had a lot of ADHD and a few ASD children. Rather than being annoyed by the little wild munchkins like I would have at one point in time, I absolutely loved every one of them because I understood them and appreciated their personalities. I had a couple of new parents who were stunned and relieved to find that I knew what AS was and had no problem with it. (Admittedly I still need to work on patience with my own kids, but my kids are 24/7 rather than a couple of hours a week, and I AM improving.)

I also enjoy how much more exciting each success is. Learning to ride a bike, wipe their own bum, make a new friend, etc: Huge! Very exciting!

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-26-2003
Sat, 10-20-2007 - 8:55am
I have to say my entry is more in the past tense; back in his very young years, I never had to worry about him getting into mischief when my back was turned.