Post by Eryn Hubbard.
My oldest son has Aspergers, he has problems communicating, talking, explaining things. Talking to him can be very frustrating, constantly having to tell him to slow down and carefully enunciate his words. However, he can type or text properly, correctly and explain almost anything. He just cannot say it verbally.
Technology has advanced which can help others who are victims of these disorders. We as a society however have to identify who needs the assistance, and quit trying to pigeonhole them into neat ordered niches and marginalize them, and make them less than they are.
When we still lived in St. Louis before we moved to a little town near Lake Wappapello and Clearwater Lake, the school district had labeled my son as mentally retarded. That label followed him down to our new town. His Dr was actually trying to get me to have him put in a home for retarded children. MY wife and I refused to do that and we fought that diagnoses of our son.
We later found out it was put in his file by an uncredentialed teacher's aide, who didn't want to help my son with his speech and physical therapy. So she wrote in his records that he was retarded.
And because it was his school record, that diagnoses took me over 8 years to get changed.
It took moving to Texas, and a new Pediatrician, to get that removed from my sons record, well not removed but changed. Now his records show that he has Aspergers, is High Functioning, has a speech impediment but CAN communicate. In June he will graduate from High School. He will still be going to the same school next school year for more speech and physical therapy, but someday he WILL be able to be on his own and stand on his own two feet and face all the challenges of this world.
I await that day, and I am very proud of him.
No comments:
Post a Comment