Saturday, 13 March 2010

• Book Review - "Parelle Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's"

  This week over at  Stark Raving Biliophile Laughing Stars reviewed a book called Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's by Tim Page. (Please click the link to read the well written review.)

  
  

  I was struck by one thought Ms. Stars highlighted from the bok. (She even used the colors of my blog for the title and quotes...pickle color!)

  
  

  We are informally referred to as "Aspies," and if were are not very, very good at something we tend to do it very poorly. Little comes naturally -- except for whatever random, inexplicable, and often uncontrollable gifts we may have -- and, even more than most children, we assemble our personalities unevenly, in bits and pieces, almost robotically, from the models we admire. (p. 6)

  
  

  I meditated on this all week. It perfectly describes my observations of Jonathan. He's either very good at what he does or he's poor. What makes Jonathan 'average' is his ADHD and Anxiety Disorder...he can't stay focused or he's afraid to take risks.  

  
  
  
  
  The uneven development describes what I've observed over the years. He'll have an intellectual explosion and leap several grade levels ahead of his peers but be several years behind them socially and developmentally. Then he'll stay at this intellectual point for a number of years until his peers start catching up. In the meantime, his social and developmental skills will catch up. This year he's made incredible strides forward in a number of developmental behaviors but intellectually, the principal felt he was unchallenged. But we decided it was okay because the stress of both catching up developmentally and staying ahead intellectually along with several social/emotional issues at home. (My dad had a heart attack and I spent a lot of time helping my family. Our neighbors had a feud in which we experienced the fall out. Our Spanish Exchange student returned to Spain...Jonathan's soul mate.)
  
  
  I can't wait to get a hold of the book to find out more about Tim Page, now in his 50s. Thanks Laughing Stars for bringing this book to my attention!
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