Re: CHAT: OT CHAT: Asperger's syndrome

At 12:32 22.6.2000 -0700, Vima Kadphises wrote:

>       I know such a person who was singled out at a very early age for
> learning disabilities.  At first he was identified for being socially
> maladjusted, but it became a problem when he started spinning his
> yarns.  This sort of activity can land you in a heap of trouble.  First
> came the stories about his sister, whom he claimed to be the spawn of the
> Jersey Devil, switched at birth with his true sibling.  On another
> occasion, the child came to school weeping, claiming that "she was too
> young to die."  After some prying the teacher discovered that the child
> was referring to his mother, who was of course perfectly healthy at the
> time.  Then, and this is my favorite one, the child started telling
> stories about the Barbary Pirates, who were hiding in his refrigerator
> and thirsting for the blood of Thomas Jefferson.
>
>       At this point it is not surprising that the teacher lost her
> patience.  She suspected that the child had no grip on reality and sent
> him to an LDTC (learning disabilities teacher-consultant) to be
> tested.  As it turns out, the child tested at an adult level,
> demonstrating a firm grip on reality.  Nevertheless (wouldn't you know
> it?) several other learning disabilities were revealed through rigorous
> testing (of the sort that have been described here - obssessive rituals,
> "short attention span," "social maladjustment," fill in the blank... )
> and it was decided that he would be transferred into the SPED program
> (SPED = special education).
That's more or less what happened to me at age 9!  In my case I was
transferred from a school for disabled children and made up for my lack of
sports skills by acting the clown and yarn-spinner.  My time at school was
a perfect hell, but was made bearable because someone got me a University
Library card...



/BP

  B.Philip Jonsson  mailto:melroch@mail.com
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