MY GRANDSON HAS ASPERGER'S SYNDROME
Last year my grandson, Brandon, was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. From the time he could walk, I'd sensed there was something different about this young boy, but assumed he just had a very unique personality. Now that he has been diagnosed, I realize that some of his actions pointed to the fact that he'd been born with this neurobiological disorder that is most prevalent in boys.
One of the first things his parents and I noticed is that when he played with his cars, he lined them up in rigid order. Each one had to be lined up precisley to the one next to it. If any were out of order, Brandon would carefully put it back. At the time, we thought this to be a cute quirk of his personality. We now know this was the first clue that he had Asperger's.
Just before he turned two and possibly even before, we noticed that when he got excited, Brandon didn't know quite how to control his feelings. He would hold his arms out at an angle, similar to how a chicken holds its' wings and jerk them up and down. As he passed two, he would draw his elbows down toward his knees,do a little dance while flailing his arms. These movements weren't wild, but subtle. Again, we thought it was cute and contributed it only to uncontrolable excitement. We never thought that it could indicate a neurobiological disorder.
Other than Brandon's behavioral quirks, no other symptoms appeared for nearly three years. At age 4, he entered Junior Kindergarten. His teacher assured us he was well behaved and he learned his lessons quickly. However, his second year of school didn't go so well. The same teacher explained that while Brandon excelled at his studies, he was unable to accomplish certain things that other children his age could . He had trouble putting on his snowpants, zipping his coat and putting on his boots. When he was unable to do these things, he became frustrated and overwhelmed with emotion. This caused him to act-out and disrupted the class. We weren't sure why this was happening and watched him carefully. We encouraged him to continue "trying." Such phrases as "try, try again," "never give up," and "you can do it," became the norm.
I took care of Brandon and his brother, Jordan, at the time. When I saw that he needed a lot of encouragement, I bought him the book, "The Little Engine That Could." Brandon loves trains and I felt he might relate to the "little blue engine" in the book. Though it helped, it didn't solve all of Brandon's problems.
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