Blessings of Aspergers/Autism
Autism is a lot of negative things; struggles, meltdowns, sleep, eating, sensory problems, social and school issues, but there are positives! My Asperger children have a sweet innocence about them, a rare freshness and sense of wonderment. They are excited about the world around them, with a zest and hunger for learning. (Especially the object/s of there focus) Many of these children are physically beautiful. Often they are truthful to a fault, blurting out the first thing that pops into their mind, speaking things the rest of us think but would be too polite to say. Because of their innocence it’s probably going to be accepted better than if it came from another mouth. They are often very perceptive. They take everything literal and are usually unprejudiced. They live in the present, and don’t hold grudges.
Here’s some very positive Asperger qualities:
1. They are loyal with impeccable dependability,
2. They often have the ability to regard others at “face value”.
3. They speak their mind irrespective of social context or adherence to personal beliefs,
4. They have the ability to pursue personal theory or perspective despite conflicting evidence,
5. They have enthusiasm for unique interests and topics,
6. They have a great consideration of details,
7. They listen without continual judgment or assumption,
8. They avoid “ritualistic small talk” or socially trivial statements and superficial conversation,
9. They seek sincere, positive, genuine friends with an unassuming sense of humor.
10. They are seekers of truth, conversation free of hidden meaning or agenda,
11. They often have advanced vocabulary and interest in words.
12. They are often original with unique perspective in problem solving,
11. Many have exceptional memory and recall of details often forgotten or disregarded by others, for example: names, dates, schedules, routines, 12. They have avid perseverance in gathering and cataloging information on a topic of interest,
13. Many are persistence of thought, encyclopedic or “CD ROM” knowledge of one or more topics,
14. Many have knowledge of routines and a focused desire to maintain order and accuracy,
15. Many have clarity of values/decision making unaltered by political or financial factors
16. Many are sensitive to specific sensory experiences and stimuli, for example: hearing, touch, vision, and/or smell
17. Many have strength in individual sports and games, particularly those involving endurance or visual accuracy, including rowing, swimming, bowling, chess
18. many are the “Social unsung hero” with trusting optimism:
19. Many are frequent victims of social weaknesses of others, while steadfast in the belief of the possibility of genuine friendship
Many Aspergers have the amazing ability to absorb facts easily in their brains. They are fascinated by facts and dates, have a rote memory, a good memory (they remember lot of things about their life), can hear things normal people can’t hear, they tend to remember things back when they were real young like 2 or 1 or below, they can memorize lines from movies, they have narrow interests, tend to be walking encyclopedias, they see things differently than others, outside interests like reading about weather instead of learning what they’re learning in school. When my girls were younger they would often spend days in their room, reading a set of children’s encyclopedias.
Lest any of you feel discouraged about your Asperger child’s future, here is a list of people who by today’s diagnostic criteria would have been labeled Aspergers:
Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English novelist, author of Pride and Prejudice
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827, German/Viennese composer
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922, Scottish/Canadian/American inventor of the telephone
Anton Bruckner, 1824-1896, Austrian composer
Henry Cavendish, 1731-1810, English/French scientist, discovered the composition of air and water
Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, US poet
Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, US inventor
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/American theoretical physicist
Henry Ford, 1863-1947, US industrialist
Oliver Heaviside, 1850-1925, English physicist
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, US politician
Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychoanalyst
Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, Czech writer
Wasily Kandinsky, 1866-1944, Russian/French painter
H P Lovecraft, 1890-1937, US writer
Gustav Mahler, 1860-1911, Czech/Austrian composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791, Austrian composer
Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, English mathematician and physicist
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher
Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British logician
George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish playwright, writer of Pygmalion, critic and Socialist
Richard Strauss, 1864-1949, German composer
Nikola Tesla, 1856-1943, Serbian/American scientist, engineer, inventor of electric motors
Henry Thoreau, 1817-1862, US writer
Alan Turing, 1912-1954, English mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer
Mark Twain, 1835-1910, US humorist
Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951, Viennese/English logician and philosopher
Historical people prominent in the late twentieth century (died after 1975)
Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, Russian/US writer on science and of science fiction
Hans Asperger, 1906-1980, Austrian pediatric doctor after whom Asperger’s Syndrome is named
John Denver, 1943-1997, US musician
Glenn Gould, 1932-1982, Canadian pianist
Jim Henson, 1936-1990, creator of the Muppets, US puppeteer, writer, producer, director, composer
Alfred Hitchcock, 1899-1980, English/American film director
Howard Hughes, 1905-1976, US billionaire
Andy Kaufman, 1949-1984, US comedian, subject of the film Man on the Moon
L S Lowry, 1887-1976, English painter of “matchstick men”
Charles Schulz, 1922-2000, US cartoonist and creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown
Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, US artist
Contemporary famous people
Woody Allen, 1935-, US comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, jazz clarinettist
Bob Dylan, 1941- , US singer-songwriter
Joseph Erber, 1985-, young English composer/musician who has Asperger’s Syndrome
Bobby Fischer, 1943-, US chess champion
Bill Gates, 1955-, US global monopolist
Al Gore, 1948-, former US Vice President and presidential candidate
David Helfgott, 1947-, Australian pianist, subject of the film Shine
Garrison Keillor, 1942-, US writer, humorist and host of Prairie Home Companion
Kevin Mitnick, 1963-, US “hacker”
John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind)
Keith Olbermann, 1959-, US sportscaster
Michael Palin, 1943-, English comedian and presenter
Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
James Taylor, 1948-, US singer/songwriter
Dan Akroyd Saturday Night Live
And so many more!
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Was there anyone on the list provided that surprised you?
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I am a 48 year old woman with Asperger’s. This means that the truth is very important to me, even if it shows me in a poor light. Although many of the traits on that list are true, some are wide of the mark. We most certainly can hold grudges. I have taken offence at things people have done, and taken action against them, and carried it on for a long, long time. A lifetime of being misunderstood, not understanding others, and feeling all the shame and anger that brings, makes many of us bitter and paranoid – not to mention the loneliness that goes along with our baffled social skills. Yes, we have many excellent traits, but we can be deeply unpleasant too. This is because we are HUMAN.
I’m sorry if this page is meant to pep up people whose kids have been diagnosed, but I don’t like being painted as something I’m not, and something which I do not recognise at all in the other AS adults I’ve been in touch with.
You do us no favours by pretending we’re innocent little angels.
Oh, and beautiful? I’ve had males screeching, “Ugly cow!” at me for as long as I can remember.
@zoedark@xanga – I don’t know if it is true or not… just that I have heard it said before.
@keystspf – that is interesting to hear, I suppose I judged without doing research but it just seemed like a bit of an absurd statement to make. I have met many kids with autism (I used to volunteer with children with disabilities including autism, fragile X etc) and although they did have many traits that made them endearing, i didn’t find them any more attractive than the average child. by narrowing it down to HFA/aspbergers, maybe there is something to be said for it and I just hasn’t met any people who had aspbergers yet (that i have known)
@zoedark@xanga – It is rather odd, but several people have pointed this out on other sites as well, that the majority of kids with Aspergers/HFA are really outwardly quite beautiful. This is not the first time I have heard this, though it would be rather difficult to “prove” since such things are extremely subjective. As they say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
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<td class=”xl24″ width=”348″ height=”111″>Interesting
post. I agree with you totally. On another aspect, my take is that <a
href=”http://www.mmpp.com.sg/child-development.html”>asperger’s
syndrome during the early stages should be attended and no parent
should ever forget that.
As someone who has grown up with a younger brother who has been called myriad names because of his extreme social awkwardness, and who has only just learned that he likely suffers from Aspergers, this list was really beautiful. 🙂 And very true. For as awkward and unintelligible as my brother can be, he is fiercely loyal, says what he means and his memory of the most random occurrences is sharp as a tack.
@AubreyMcFate@xanga – I totally agree with this. Additionally ‘Many of these children are physically beautiful.” I have absolutely no clue where this came from, I mean all children can be physically beautiful I don’t see how aspergers has anything to do with it.
Cool. Like the list. Autistic kids are great. Alot of these things on the list apply to me as well so it’s cool being around them.
2 of my best friends in college had Aspergers, and they definitely had several of the qualities on the list…
I was surprised by some of the people on the list, but not all of them. Jane Austin surprised me, as did Al Gore. But like AubreyMcFate, I do wonder where the list comes from.
This was a great post! My son who’s brain is autistic – shares many of these features of superior memory, great sense of humor, knows when a joke is actually funny. It is those little things that make my day. I always tell people that it does get easier…and the rewards are amazing! thanks!
Hurray for the “unperfectly” gifted 🙂
I MAJOR IN THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT FIELD AND I’VE WORKED WITH AUTISTIC KIDS BEFORE AND THEY’RE JUST FULL OF LIFE AND I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE WON’T ACCEPT THEM… I ENJOY BEING AROUND THEM… YOU’D BE SURPRISED HOW MUCH JOY THEY BRING TO YOU ONCE YOU GET TO KNOW THEM IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!!
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Awesome post! I have two kids with Asperger’s and one high functioning Autistic little boy and I think they are the most incredible people on the planet. Thanks for this post
Thank for your encouraging comments! Good for you Robin! What the world perceives as a lemon, some have made wonderful lemonade from it. We all have choices. Some chose to wallow in “poor me” while others are “more than conquerors!”
Wonderful! Thank you! Oh, and you can add my name to the list of futurefamous Aspies: Robin A., dancer, author, musician.
You forgot that some of us are Vulcans! haha. =) You sound like an awesome mom.
I am actually a bit suprised by a couple of the names on that list. Great post.
By the way, you have two 11s, so that makes 20 positives.
I like the fact that you pointed out that Aspies are truth seekers. All the more reason for more people go out and get to know those with the syndrome.
Lovely post. Thank you for showing the world that Aspies/Autistics aren’t all as bad as the social stigma of the label claims.
Kudos.