I attended a DANISH meeting with my wife last night. (DANISH stands for Dallas Aspergers Network for Information, Support, and Help. We meet on the fourth Thursday evening of the month, and we have an email chat room of sorts.) You never know from month to month what the composition of a meeting is going to be. The early meetings we attended were mostly parents of children with Asperger’s Syndrome. Lately, Asperger’s adults have predominated. Their perspective is unusual and gives us insight into what Theresa may be like as an adult.
Our daughter, Theresa, was diagnosed with Asperger’s in April 2008, forcing us to return to the U.S. from Cameroon the following July. We are home in Dallas on a two-year furlough trying to understand and help our daughter as well as raise our support level up to what we need to return to Cameroon. My wife and I serve there with Wycliffe Bible Translators. My particular role is as office manager for the Cameroon Branch of SIL International. (Wycliffe and SIL are partner organizations whose goal is to translate the Word of God into the heart languages of all the world’s people. For more info, please consult our web site.)
Psychologists are unsure of what causes people to be born with Autistic Spectrum Disorders like Asperger’s Syndrome, but genetic and environmental factors are both suspected. I lean toward genetics because I see traces of Asperger’s both in my life and in my wife’s life. I won’t speak for her, but I’ll probably be getting back to this in future blogs. I love learning new things about myself, and the discovery of Asperger’s in my daughter has given me insight into my own behaviors, both childhood and current.
I’m concerned at the moment with a fire raging in the foothills above La Cañada, California. My friend, Will Duquette, posted some photos of the fire on his blog. I don’t suspect he’ll be burned out, but his all-wood house is vulnerable. Prayers for the folks of La Cañada and La Crescenta are welcome.
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Asperger syndrome is also known as pervasive developmental disorder. It deemed as a highly functioning type of autism. Some of the symptoms are, difficulty in making eye contact, body stance or gesticulation and facial expressions. Person suffering from it might show extreme aggressiveness. There are some medications and some adopts autism therapy. For more details on asperger syndrome, refer Asperger s syndrome symptoms
ReplyDeleteI would refine what is written above. Based upon my extensive reading of ASD's, Asperger's can be considered a form of pervasive developmental disorder, although another disorder actually has that in its title: PDD-NOS (the "NOS" stands for "not otherwise specified"). Asperger's is high functioning, but difficulty in making eye contact is not a symptom. My daughter has no trouble with this, although her body stance, gesticulations, and facial expressions are certainly odd. Theresa can be extremely aggressive when things don't go her way. I am not aware of any medications that can ameliorate the core symptoms of autism, but there are behavioral and other therapies available to help the Aspie get along with others and succeed in society. I'm currently reading Temple Grandin's book "The Way I See It", an excellent source of information on this subject.
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