The Diagnosis: Asperger's Syndrome

We finally met with the team of doctors and psychologist and this is what came out:

"Mild Asperger Syndrome with associated anxiety"

and also,

"Speech Delay with Autistic Spectrum Characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome"

as well as

"Difficulty with motor movement and hand-eye coordination in terms of handwriting"

These were what were listed on the last pages of many reports after pages and pages of comments and recommendations.

I wasn't entirely surprised. From everything that I had been reading, it fit MJ. It fit my husband. They looked at his younger brother Thomas, who had some of the same traits as MJ. They were not sure now, but they sensed he would have some of the same genetically inherited traits as his brother and dad. That would be something yet to decide.

They told me that I didn't need a long instruction manual. I had been the one who already knew how to deal with MJ and understood his mind.

I already knew if we were going to do something different on any given day that I had to inform MJ ahead of time and prepare him for the change.

I already knew I couldn't tell him a list of instructions, but had to tell him to do something one thing at a time.

I already knew what he did and didn't like. I already knew just because he wasn't looking at you when you talked to him that it didn't mean he wasn't listening.

I already knew he could get lost in a trance at anything distracting.

I already knew he had an excellent memory for facts and could retell anything word for word, but at the same time he couldn't remember to get dressed, eat, do homework, or bring things home without constant cuing.

I was used to his clumsiness and awkwardness and emotions and toe walking.

I knew how he talked and I could make sense of his spurts of language.

It was just now that I needed to take this information back to his school and see what we could do to help THEM understand him the way I did.

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