More GRASP mailing-list e-mails to share with you all.
Hear Pulitzer-prize winner music critic, Tim Page, discuss his experience with Asperger's Syndrome on NPR’s All Things Considered with Robert Siegel 8/13/07:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12750745
Michael John Carley wrote this abstract to "Parallel Play," a New York Times article written by Tim Page (August 20, 2007, pg. 36)
PERSONAL HISTORY about Asperger’s syndrome. Writer quotes from a report he wrote in the second grade describing a school field trip to Boston. To his teacher’s dismay, the report focused on how the class got to and from Boston and not what they saw when they were there. Writer notes that he received a grade of “Unsatisfactory” in Social Development from the Mansfield (CT) Public Schools that year. He did not show neatness and care in his work, did not cooperate with the group. After fifty-two years, the writer feels that his life has been spent in a state of parallel play, alongside, but distinctly apart from, the rest of humanity. From an early age, the writer was described as a genius because of his ability to remember information. His pervasive childhood memory is of an excruciating awareness of his own strangeness. He was consistently at or near the bottom of his class and preferred reading the encyclopedia to playing during recess. The writer was told that he had Asperger’s syndrome in the fall of 2000. Here, finally, was an objective explanation for some of his strengths and weaknesses. The syndrome was identified, in 1944, by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician. Mentions Oliver Sacks’s discussion of Asperger’s in The New Yorker. A recent book describes a person with Asperger’s as primarily viewed by other people as different because of their unusual quality of social behavior and conversations skills. Writer says that learning to make genuine connections with people was a bewildering process. His first and most powerful obsession was with music. When he was ten he became fascinated by silent films. Mentions his love of the Scottish comedian Harry Lauder. Tells about his discomfort with physical contact. Anything related to the human body seemed to be bad news. Describes his difficulty paying attention in classes that did not interest him, such as algebra and chemistry. By the age of twelve, he had written his first novel and was able to play most of the easier Chopin pieces on the piano. The book that helped pull him into the human race was Emily Post’s “Etiquette.” It offered clearly stated reasons for courtesy, gentility, and scrupulousness. The writer, who is now a music critic, describes his strong response to hearing the world premiere of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians.” Briefly tells about falling in love with his wife. Writer notes that overstimulation is still a problem and that he continues to thrive on routine.
