My Experience with My Own Life

My autism

When I was 5 and 6, the time most kids in America seem to start to read, I was creative in the fact that, seeing a picture, I could tell the story of the picture, but take that picture away, and I hadn't a clue. My mother and dad, when he was home and not working on the start of his business, did everything they could to help me read, but no matter what they did, I could not do correlation between words and their meanings. That's where a teacher of mine, let's call her Mrs.B, had the idea of asking the Psychiatrist I was seeing for my ADHD about it. I think she thought I was dyslexic, but her suggestion helped to get me diagnosed, and then get help.

My parents asked the doctor about it, and after a few minutes of talking came to the conclusion that it wasn't dyslexia, but some kind of sensory disorder that also affects learning. I hated anything touching me that wasn't the softest or most boring texture. I loved blocks that had definition, but if I found that the blocks had certain textures like bubbles or stripes, I was liable to cry. I hated any food or drink that was either extremely slimy(therefore rolling on my in a really strange way, like scallops, those actually almost killed me the time I tried them when I was five and turned out to be allergic to them, and also Peanut Butter), really thick(hard to swallow, mostly drinks such as eggnog-although, I've mostly gotten over this), or annoyingly chewy(hard to chew up, especially if it had fatty crap on it, like beef- this also applied to the slimy category). I also really hated pop rocks and cried a long time after I tried them, expected normal candy. These things and a few other abnormalities told the doctor I might have one, and she suggested a brain scan, for which my parents had done promptly.

The brain scan was done promptly, and it was discovered that I was autistic, what was at the time called Asperger Syndrome for those who understand the autism spectrum. It was low enough for me to have the learning problems and many of the other positives and negatives, but not high enough to display physical effects. This is what lead to my parents getting my into physical therapy, as well as a learning tutor. More simply, would my parents have been unable to afford either a tutor or a physical therapist, go with a tutor, but buy this weird brush thing to rub against my arms and legs every evening and morning so that I would get used to new feelings. And had they been tutor and physical therapist, tape a sheet over the pictures in a book, and force me to read the words without. Along with reading, to have me write a sentence, but each word save for a and the, give an explanation about what each word meant.

Fortunately for me, my parents were able to provide therapy and tutoring. These two allowed me to have the ability to read and write. This is also what made me want to be an author. I could write! This was something I previously didn't understand, and I could do it! I wrote so much, and Mrs.B encouraged me all along the way. I was honestly fortunate to have her as a teacher. I know my story for this is uncommon and kind of short, but it is how my early life progressed until my dad made a huge mistake and sent me to a particular school, but that's next chapter's thing.