My Son, with Asperger’s Syndrome

With a special needs child in the family, translated…

My son was born, under everybody’s great expectations, but, since he was three, we’d slowly discovered, that when we’d tried talking with him, he’d only, replied back using simple words and phrases, couldn’t express himself in complete sentences, and he often became, too caught up in his own little world, and disregarded everything that’s going on all around him. When he’d entered into daycare, his teacher started reporting to us his odd behaviors, until we’d enrolled him into the public school systems when he turned six, after the counselor’s assessments, we were told, that he showed signs of Asperger’s Syndrome.

At first, neither one of us could accept the label of “abnormal” on our son, from feeling upset and defeated and depressed, we’d decided, to accept the help provided by the district for special needs students; my wife quit her job immediately, went to work as a volunteer mom at my son’s class, on the one hand, she’d be there, to keep an eye on him, and on the other, she could learn the techniques of taking care of a special needs child.

Picture from the papers…

Toward children with Asperger’s, because they don’t show any ups and downs of their emotions in their facial expressions or verbal expressions, it’d caused the ones who are interacting with them to feel awkward, or that they would be discussing totally different things. And, children with Asperger’s have their own separate and specialized “itinerary for the day”, whenever someone from around wanted to alter their schedules, it’d cause them great amount of distress; the major events include moving away, the minor ones included switching seats, you’d needed to, communicate with them on ahead of times, otherwise, they’d lose emotional control very easily.

As my son went into the third grade, the school placed him back in with the regular students, hoping to train him to interact with his classmates, but this was, the start of a huge challenge, for us, and for our son as well. Some of the naughtier kids would make fun of him, causing him to lose control and scream loudly, and other students have complaints about how he would interrupt the teacher often. During that period of time, my son came home crying, almost every single day, and my wife and I, did our best, to soothe him, and worked hard, to communicate with the school to find a way that’s working, and prayed to God, to keep watch over this little angel, with damaged wings.

not my photograph, without the “proper” facial expressions…

My son grew up, tear, by tear, worked really hard, to flap his own special wings. Children with Asperger’s have something that other children would envy too, his focus in class, it’d made him pursue knowledge on a level of depth, and the questions he’d asked the teachers in class, were way more advanced than the rest of his fellow classmates’ questions, and, other than being in awe at how knowledgeable our son is becoming, they’d nicknamed him a “living encyclopedia”. He also has amazing memory too, any place he’d been to, many years later, he could, lead us back without any troubles; these two abilities, are desired by all the other “normal” students.

In elementary and middle school, my son graduated with good grades; after he went into high school, as the classmates got to know his temperament, although they’d labeled him as “quirk”, but, they are able to chit chat, and talk about the same interests with him already. The high school course load in the U.S. is heavy, and he’d not only managed to finish ALL of his needed credits for graduation, he’d also, taken many AP courses, although he’d not ranked at the top of his class, but, because of his outstanding performances in math and sciences, he was admitted to UCI-Irvine’s Computer Department before he graduated from high school.

At the start of May, the Irvine campus invited the parents and the students to visit the campus, as we went to see the dorms, I saw how he and his younger brother were excitedly, trading tips, I felt, so very moved, and, as my eyes became blurred, it’s as if, I saw my little angel, showing off his strong enough wings, ready, to fly, toward the skies that belonged to, solely him.

So, this just shows, how so long you’re working hard, to try to find a way, to reach the students with special needs, they can succeed too, and this mother worked really hard, to help her son find himself, and, now he has, he’s ready, to spread his wings, and fly, high!!!