Wednesday, December 22, 2004
One Week
Oh look it is another song title. It also describes how long it has been since I have done much on line. I have not posted here, or read other blogs, or posted at GC Magazine discussion, or any of my usual haunts. I have not downloaded my email daily. This last while has been different.
Why. Sure I had lots to do, but I often have lots to do. I think the main factor is convenience. I do not always have convenient access to the internet. I have to move my laptop to a connection or to another room.
So what has happened since? I preached my last sermon for a couple of months last week. People got lots out of it, like one expression of love is if you have hearts in your eyes. It was a strange experience. Those kids who sit there and seem oblivious during the sermon, all of a sudden spoke up. I gave multiple opportunity for interaction from the congregation, and the kids got involved. On topic no less. The first child to comment gave a priceless response. How do you show love to others? Stare. At his age, this is exactly right. I love that he even understood it.
Monday we had the opposite kind of a day. We had a meeting with the team who tested our oldest son. All the time leading up to this, we had been hearing the term Aspergers, as the diagnosis. We were starting to get comfortable with the idea when they changed it. On Friday when we met with a children's doctor he kept mentioning Autism, which threw me. I was pretty quiet during this whole meeting. I did not have questions, because I was a lttle confused and surprised by the idea that now he was suggesting Autism (with some ADHD tendancies!). Then Monday the diagnosis was Autism. The speech pathologist (I think I have the right term here) gave the fullest report (we have a copy, and I need to look at it again if I am going to be able to explain what she said). The main difference between Autism and Asperger's from what I picked up from this meeting is that Asperger's will try to interact socially and want to interact socially, but fail. Autism there is not a desire to interact socially. The autistic person will tend towards a very ego-centric outlook. This may be simplifying, and may only apply to certain ages, but this is the impression that we had.
Again I did not talk much during this and my wife had to carry the conversation with the professionals. Luckily she told me later that her way of coping is to become very logical and so she was coping by asking questions. I was imploding. Can and autistic child grow up, go to university, have girlfriends (or at least one), get married, have children? Can an autistic child become a fully functioning part of society? Can an autistic child develop faith?
It is these kinds of questions that have haunted me since my oldest child was a baby, and one day the thought crossed my mind. I think that we were concerned about his hearing which is fine.
As he starts to get older and get into more abstract ideas, we will see how functioning he is going to be. They told us that most high functioning autistic people struggle with abstract, and prefer the literal. As school continues, it gets more abstract, and less literal. He will start to struggle as he continues. Ouch. I don't want my genuis child to go from being so smart to being unable to understand!
We can only wait and see for much of this, and I cannot let on to him how concerned I am. He needs my support. This is a scary time for me.
Why. Sure I had lots to do, but I often have lots to do. I think the main factor is convenience. I do not always have convenient access to the internet. I have to move my laptop to a connection or to another room.
So what has happened since? I preached my last sermon for a couple of months last week. People got lots out of it, like one expression of love is if you have hearts in your eyes. It was a strange experience. Those kids who sit there and seem oblivious during the sermon, all of a sudden spoke up. I gave multiple opportunity for interaction from the congregation, and the kids got involved. On topic no less. The first child to comment gave a priceless response. How do you show love to others? Stare. At his age, this is exactly right. I love that he even understood it.
Monday we had the opposite kind of a day. We had a meeting with the team who tested our oldest son. All the time leading up to this, we had been hearing the term Aspergers, as the diagnosis. We were starting to get comfortable with the idea when they changed it. On Friday when we met with a children's doctor he kept mentioning Autism, which threw me. I was pretty quiet during this whole meeting. I did not have questions, because I was a lttle confused and surprised by the idea that now he was suggesting Autism (with some ADHD tendancies!). Then Monday the diagnosis was Autism. The speech pathologist (I think I have the right term here) gave the fullest report (we have a copy, and I need to look at it again if I am going to be able to explain what she said). The main difference between Autism and Asperger's from what I picked up from this meeting is that Asperger's will try to interact socially and want to interact socially, but fail. Autism there is not a desire to interact socially. The autistic person will tend towards a very ego-centric outlook. This may be simplifying, and may only apply to certain ages, but this is the impression that we had.
Again I did not talk much during this and my wife had to carry the conversation with the professionals. Luckily she told me later that her way of coping is to become very logical and so she was coping by asking questions. I was imploding. Can and autistic child grow up, go to university, have girlfriends (or at least one), get married, have children? Can an autistic child become a fully functioning part of society? Can an autistic child develop faith?
It is these kinds of questions that have haunted me since my oldest child was a baby, and one day the thought crossed my mind. I think that we were concerned about his hearing which is fine.
As he starts to get older and get into more abstract ideas, we will see how functioning he is going to be. They told us that most high functioning autistic people struggle with abstract, and prefer the literal. As school continues, it gets more abstract, and less literal. He will start to struggle as he continues. Ouch. I don't want my genuis child to go from being so smart to being unable to understand!
We can only wait and see for much of this, and I cannot let on to him how concerned I am. He needs my support. This is a scary time for me.
// posted by Eric @ 8:52 AM 
