Horrific Newtown, CT school shooting

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

I was probably a lot easier for them to reach out to. My only full brother was a very good athlete, still has the school track and field record for the javelin, I think. My oldest brother (half) was the best pitcher in the city. I had two younger brothers and two older ones, and just from studying them, I knew how to act to fit in with guys.

The Asperger's diagnosis saved me from my parents.

My mom and step dad would take me in the basement and beat the hell out of me with a huge wooden paddle.

Eventually, they got so frustrated because all of the paddling, ear-pulling, and head slapping wasn't working...that they took me to a few doctors.

Dr. Barber diagnosed me with it. And liked me so much that he went around filming me. The Barber Center here used me as the film for sort of the textbook case.

Anyway, my mom and stepdad just backed off of me at that point. All of the efforts to discipline me stopped ... all of her dreams that I would one day be a CEO were crushed -- and she accepted it.

I refused to do homework -- but I would shuffle up and memorize 3 decks of playing cards ... stuff like that would drive her almost to violence.

I attended a workshop on teaching classes of special needs kids and the woman leading it recalled a class she taught that included a severely autistic child, who spent the class standing in the back, swaying and talking to himself. She let him be, and conducted the class. His regular teacher later told her (via his mom) that when he got home that night he recited what she had said, word for word. He clearly got a great deal of things, if he was left to experience them in a way that worked for him.

I think your incredible gift for seeing patterns is one of the things that makes you such a good handicapper.

Temple Grandin referred to NASA as one big workplace for people with autism. Speaking of, did you ever see the HBO Temple Grandin film? I thought the filmmakers did some pretty clever things in attempting to help the viewer "see" the way Grandin does, and I was very curious if someone who has tested on the spectrum thought they did a good job at it. (Have I asked you this before? I can't remember.)