Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am an Autism mom and teacher who is sharing from experience and opinion.
Let’s start with what autism is. Autism is a developmental condition caused by differences in the brain that impacts how a person socializes, learns, communicates, and behaves. A person with autism can falls into a rating on the spectrum from 1-3, with one being mild and three being the most severe.
Autism is NOT a life-threatening condition, nor is it contagious. Some cases are found to be genetic, where others have no found cause yet. This is where my daughter falls.
She was screened last summer at the age of ten. Up until then we fought for a diagnosis that made sense. We barked up every tree from ADD to Juvenile Bipolar Disorder. We ended up with Autism Level 1 / Asperger’s Syndrome. The years leading up to that diagnosis were tough. Some were even brutal.
You see, academically my daughter is extremely intelligent. Socially, she’s around the age of seven. This is where her struggles come in. Her classmates are all maturing how they should be and she’s still struggling to make lasting friendships and positive connections.
This is the part that’s tough when it comes to explaining how she is autistic. No, she doesn’t have many visual markers (ex: flapping, noise cancelling headphones, chewy necklaces…). To look at her in a normal classroom, she’s a distracted kid just making it through the day. Take a closer look.
That tapping with the pencil is her stimming. The head shakes are her sorting out all of the over-stimulation. The hums and coughs are the occasional tics that show up (also a form of stimming). The loudness and over-excitability are her autism and ADHD all rolled into one. There’s the lack of impulse control. The inability to keep from interrupting. The discombobulation of her appearance, demeanor, backpack, and locker. All of the signs are there. And as a parent/teacher, I missed all of them.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some cases where it is noticeable as to them falling on the spectrum. Does it make them any less intelligent? Absolutely not. I have worked with students who can tell me the answer to anything I ask, yet they fall on the spectrum. I’ve also worked with non-verbal students who can show me the correct answers using their prompts. Their intelligence shows up in different ways. Those ways are all just as important as the gifted student with a high IQ and no diagnosis.
Here’s a list of celebrities that fall on the spectrum (and some believed to be): Anthony Hopkins, Elon Musk, Mozart, Nikola Tesla, Jane Austen, Alexis Wineman, and so many more.
Autism doesn’t mean you won’t be successful. It simply means you have different challenges to face in order to get there.
Leave a Reply