A Followup
2005-02-14, 10:29 p.m.

Postscript to the previous entry:

Thank you all for your hugs and kind words. I apologize for not cluing you in to Son�s modus operandi. You can read an excellent description of Asperger�s Syndrome here. I particularly like this: �A few people with Asperger's syndrome are very successful and until recently were not diagnosed with anything but were seen as brilliant, eccentric, absent minded, socially inept, and a little awkward physically.� Asperger�s is generally considered part of the autistic spectrum, not actual autism, but related. Son appears for the most part as a healthy, normal little boy. Often it is not until he is with peers that the differences are obvious. Most days it�s like raising a very hyperactive Data from Star Trek: TNG.
Son was diagnosed when he was three, after we pursued speech therapy through our town�s incredible public school system. The Special Ed Director got him in with an excellent pediatric neurologist within a week, and he is the one who watched Son walk across the room and said, �We have problems here.� Thus began the gamut of testing, three years of Special Ed preschool, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and the overall coddling and spoiling of a very special little boy.

Even the Special Education Director says they�ve never seen anything like him.

As a tearful and fearful mother at the initial diagnosis, I asked the neurologist what to expect. Would he function as a �normal� human being? Would he grow to have any real quality of life? Was my child destined to be �Rainman�?

The neurologist responded that, at neurological conferences, one of the more amusing activities was to �diagnose� public figures that are widely suspected to have certain disorders. The one whom Son most closely mimics?

Bill G@tes.

I can deal with that.

Here he is, with his punch balloon he got as his Valentine�s gift:

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