Frustration in the form of a 15 year old - living, breathing frustration. How do you reach out to a child with Asperger’s Syndrome who is so normal in so many ways and, yet, so very non-average in others? How do you reason with a mind that simply sees everything in a slightly different way than you do? How do you have a conversation with someone for whom subtleties of language are lost and to whom idioms are meaningless? How do you make them see your point of view when they are utterly convinced that any point of view differing from their own must be wrong? How do you convince a child who goes ballistic when someone accidently bumps into them, that putting their brother in a headlock and holding their hand over his mouth is an invasion of his personal space and an unacceptable way to deal with their frustration over his refusal to stop whistling? How do you make someone understand that their obsessive need to do things in certain patterns is not normal and that it really is okay to start vacuuming in a different area of the room, rather than become hysterical because your sister won’t get up and let you vacuum in the spot she’s sitting in first (because you have to start there, you just have to!!!)? How do you convince a child with a 125 IQ that she isn’t stupid because she’s barely passing in school? How do you make them understand that you can differ from the norm but still live a normal life? Last, but definitely not least, how do you make a child understand that, in spite of all of the struggles that you and they face in dealing with their disability, they are a beautiful, talented and dearly loved human being?
