DrRichardWilliams

The most confusing thing for me about my daughter’s behavior was appreciating her struggle with extreme sensory issues. I remember walking out the front door to see my daughter suddenly rise from the sandbox and come rushing towards me with her hands over her ears, screaming at the top of her voice. When she got to me, I almost fell over as she jumped into my arms. Ten seconds later a military jet flew over at 500 hundred feet with a deafening sound. I believe she heard it coming long before an NT person would and was able most likely to feel the sound vibrations in her feet and hands in the sandbox.

Hypersensitivities are pervasive in all children with autism. We later learned she had food texture sensitivities, clothing sensitivities, touch/feel sensitivities and others, all of which created unusual behaviors that puzzled us as parents.

A large group of autistic people learn how to deal with the world of NTs. I am reminded here of the tragic struggle girls and women have in dealing with their autism and the world around them. Girls learn at an early age to camouflage their autism and mimic NTs. They become so skilled that they can defy multiple attempts by professionals to identify autism.

Coping with NTs and the world around them is something most autistics learn however to varying degrees. Many autistic people believe they are most at home and relaxed living on their own. A solo lifestyle is most common in autism. Similarly many autistic individuals search out and find nonstressful relationships with other autistic individuals.

We learned early on that one of the calming things that we introduced our daughter to was polyphonic music as in Scarlatti and Bach. Her favorites later moved to Mozart and Tchaikovsky. This led to her learning piano at the age of 5. Three of the teachers she had claimed that she was gifted and indeed she enjoyed playing the difficult pieces of Liszt. Sadly, for unknown reason, in high school she dropped the piano, possibly because it wasn’t “cool”.

From day one, after her adoption, she was fascinated with the glasses her parents wore. She sketched from an early age, hundred, possibly thousands of bespectacled people and animals. This all led to an outstanding ability to draw and paint with excellent control of colors. She is today a successful artists and has sold much of her work.

Many young autistic children are nonverbal. It is critical to mention here that many people make the mistake of thinking that nonverbal children do not see, hear or understand all that is happening around them and in particular what is being said about them. It is highly likely there is a very active understanding person inside that understands all the is going on outside.

Many people become verbal as they grow older. Some who become verbal can become nonverbal again under stress.

I venture a guess that he will, like many, become verbal. I suggest you read the epic story of Carly Fleishmann in her autobiography Carly’s Voice.

We will never know the relationship between his meningitis and his autism diagnosis. There are a couple of possible explanations but it is all speculation. Special gifts or traits are often very hard to identify. The most successful path to discovering special abilities is to follow his own interests. Special interests are usually identified early on when young autistic children hyper focus or perseverate on topics, toys or interests. These sometimes are simply seen as habits and sometimes never really revealed until they are challenged as might occur in the work place where they have an ability that others don’t. In Silicon Valley this takes the form of creativity and being able to see relationships between seemingly disparate ideas or topics.