If my many years of marriage to an undiagnosed Aspergerian* had me taking a few tentative steps on the less traveled road, the birth of my son sent me sprinting down that road blindfolded. After stumbling down a rocky marriage path, and traveling to a much less hospitable climate, I found myself awaiting the birth of my first child. Michigan wasn't all bad, there were many things there to love, and as a transplanted Beach Bunny, I was actually looking forward to the first snow of my second winter there. We were looking to buy our first house and I had settled into my new life. I was taken by surprise when I received a call from the doctor telling me that he had noticed an abnormality in a routine blood test.
I had majored in Human Development in college. I had worked as a pre-school teacher, an aide in a Special Day class and as a 5th grade teacher. I knew what an abnormality in the Alpha Fetal Protein test meant - Down Syndrome. At least that was my first thought. My cousin had just given birth to her daughter who had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome, so I figured that had to be the issue. After amniocentesis and genetic testing on both my husband and myself, it was determined that my son had an upside-down long arm on one of his chromosomes. So did my husband. It was 1992 and genetic research wasn't as advanced as it is now. All the doctor could tell us was that my son should be as normal or abnormal as my husband was, based on their shared genetic abnormality.
The birth was uneventful, as was my sons' infancy. I didn't notice anything unusual about my child. Occasionally a stranger would stop me and comment on how alert he seemed to be. In my mind, babies didn't sleep much, that was what new parents always complained about, so my own lack of sleep was normal and to be expected. I was able to stay home and care for my son, so there was no input from other caregivers reminding me that there was a reason for the often quoted term, "sleeping like a baby". Babies are supposed to sleep but my infant son rarely slept for more than a few hours at a time and he would only sleep if he were tightly bundled and in my arms. Every time I attempted to put him down he awoke screaming. As he grew older, there were other oddities that I didn't necessarily pick up on. It's only in looking back that I can see the signs, that today, would lead to an early diagnosis of Autism.
How could a teacher miss the signs of Autism in her own child? Wasn't I supposed to be the expert? Well, back when I earned my teaching credential, we were required to take one course on special needs. That course probably mentioned Autism as a disability that we were unlikely to see as general education teachers. These were students with cognitive impairments, no speech, and outrageous behaviors. This was during the "Rainman" era. Students with this degree of impairment were institutionalized or put in a basement classroom in the public schools. Sure we had passed laws that forced public schools to educate students with disabilities, but I don't ever remember seeing any students with disabilities at the schools I attended when I was growing up. I had never met or interacted with anyone who had been diagnosed as Autistic. The diagnostic manual for psychologist (DSMV) didn't even add the Asperger diagnosis until 1992, the year that my son was born. Not only had I never met anyone with Autism, I had never heard of Asperger's Syndrome and it would be many years before I would hear of this as a possible diagnosis for my son.
Aspergerian - High Functioning Autism or one with Aspergers Syndrome.
No comments:
Post a Comment