Kelly in Kansas

Last week, I discovered that one of my good friend's children has been diagnosed with 'some characteristics' that may be Asperger's Syndrome. While I am relatively familiar with autism, I have not heard much before about this particular 'autism spectrum disorder.' My friend is being very brave and is doing all of the right things to try to help her child. She and her son and the rest of the family (dad and little brother) have been through the ringer with testing, including a visit to the University of Kansas. Her 7-year-old boy is very bright but was language delayed and still stutters when he is nervous. He's usually stuttering around me because he's so excited when company comes to visit. But he is quite persistent in getting his message across and is highly intelligent. It appears that a great deal of research has been done in this field and that unless his "symptoms" worsen, some simple behavior modification on the part of his parents and occasionally his teachers (ie not assigning him a seat in the back of the room), he will be able to adjust accordingly. I certainly hope so. It's yet another one of life's challenges that we can't prepare for ahead of time. But, as many autism spectrum disorder websites point out, we need to remember to celebrate all of the things a child does correctly instead of only focusing on some minor challenges.