Discovering AS

They say Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton had Asperger's Syndrome.

It was 3 years ago when my son Kyle was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. His teachers told me years before that to have him checked by a neuro-developmental pediatrician because they saw something different about his behavior at school. He had outbursts in the middle of class, talked too much, got bullied a lot, laughed too hard, and though he was extremely smart, he couldn't seem to express his feelings as well as other kids his age. I was in denial for years and thought that Kyle's behavior was very typical of a growing boy who had a very wide imagination. BUT it was only when the teachers refused not to admit him into Grade 4 unless he had gotten checked by a child psychologist, so, I did.

Many people with Asperger's are often regarded as being eccentric.
They sometimes lack social skills, are obsessed with complex topics
and can have problems communicating.

-BBC News

I brought Kyle to a couple of doctors. The first, a neuro developmental psychiatrist, interviewed us and at the end of the consult told me that Kyle was absolutely normal and that there was nothing to worry about. But, I just had to have a second opinion. So I brought him to another doctor who after a series of tests told me otherwise. I didn't exactly know what Asperger's Syndrome was and when she told me that Kyle had it, I didn't know how to react.

She told me all the symptoms: difficulty with eye contact, unable to show feelings accurately, cannot decode simple expressions, monotone delivery of sentences, and so on. I couldn't believe she was pointing out all of Kyle's behavioral quirks so accurately and that they were attributed to a disorder.

I was stunned. I couldn't believe that he had a disorder. My little boy, who I believed was the most sensitive, affectionate, and loving person, had mild autism.

- to be continued...