I’m far from an expert on Autism, in fact, I’ve only actually known a couple of people in my life that were on the spectrum that I had any contact with and only one for any length of time. The situation I’d like to write about was a young adult that I met through a website that offers chat rooms. There was a person in there that I found to be very witty and enjoyable to chat with.
Over the course of four months, I learned that he had a form of Autism that used to be called Aspergers Syndrome. He was an adult and had been living with a group of friends for a few years. They had been friends for a long time having met at an annual youth camp for underprivileged children in foster care.
Now, what I found astounding was that Casey (not his real name) was a brilliant conversationalist over the computer, but among his long time friends he was non-verbal and used sign language to communicate. Even among the friends he’d lived with for several years. Typical of many with Aspergers, he had social issues, wouldn’t make eye contact, and couldn’t pick up on normal social cues in person, but put him on a computer or cell phone and few receiving messages from him would know he had Aspergers.
Also typical of people with Aspergers, he had a major area of interest at which he super excelled. Casey was brilliant at anything mathematical or strategy based. His brilliant clarity communicating over a computer allowed him to tutor others in college on almost any level of math as well as teaching strategy to online game players so long as he didn’t have to meet them face to face.
I’ve worked as a youth mentor for many years and as I got to know Casey I wanted to help him extend his outreach slowly if he was interested. Over the months as we got to know each other better over the computer, I suggested we try to work on his verbal skills in a non-stressful manner. I suggested that he record messages on his computer or phone and send the verbal messages to me. This lower stress way of sending messages allowed him to use his verbal skills without the pressure of someone being there to listen as he was recording. He got better at those verbal skills, but still had extreme difficulty using them in a first person situation.
I should stop here for a moment and say that Casey is a remarkable young man. He won his emancipation from his dysfunctional family when he’d barely turned 16, and had to provide the judge with proof that he could successfully earn a living on his own, even with Aspergers. He had no trouble convincing the judge and living with his camp friends in a rented home. He finished high school early and began college skipping whole years and groups of study just by taking the required exams to prove his expertise on the subjects. He was DEFINITELY a high functioning person on the spectrum.
The ONLY area he had absolutely no skills in was verbal and social interaction. As we continued to work together from opposite sides of the United States, he became comfortable enough to take our conversations from typing to voice messaging, to Skyping or using Google Hangouts. The only caveat was he’d never turn on his camera. Doing that would bring back all of his social anxieties and worries that he was misinterpreting visual cues. Along the way, he provided enough information about his adult public work and game strategy teaching that it was easy to ascertain reasonably that he was a real person and not someone faking his experiences.
The sheer liberation of being able to communicate so intelligently without face to face verbal skills was amazing to watch as he developed over that summer season. So back to my initial comment at the beginning of this article, I’ve only known a couple of people with Aspergergers and only Casey for the length of time and using these diverse communications methods.
Has anyone else had experiences like this working with high functioning people on the spectrum? I was so amazed to see a person whose friends ONLY knew him as the painfully shy guy in the corner that only speaks through sign language, blossom and show a side to himself that few people would ever glimpse were it not for the medium of instant messaging capabilities over the internet.
His depth of intelligence and expression astounded me with every conversation. His emotional depth, wit, literacy and comfort using digital communications humbled me. The written word is my favorite form of communication, and to be humbled in the presence of an 18-year-old with Autism made for one of the most exciting summers of my life.
Casey, I hope you get to read this some time and recognize yourself in my story. I hope all of your dreams come true.
-Woofhound.