Conversation With A Kid With Asperger Syndrome #1

At work I see a lot of kids with Asperger Syndrome and some high functioning autistic kids. The bulk of what I work on with these kids is social skills. If you want to know more about Asperger Syndrome, wikipedia has a pretty good entry about it.

Or you can just go to Silicon Valley and meet the locals. Then you see the syndrome up close and personal with every person you meet. Even cheaper, rent Napoloean Dynamite. That movie is an outright celebration of Asperger Syndrome.

Anyway, here is a conversation I had with a high school senior today who has Apserger Syndrome.

Kid: "What did you do this weekend?" We have worked long and hard on how to start a conversation using an appropriate question.

Me: "Well let's see. It was pretty cold, so I stayed indoors a lot. I watched some movies and the Super Bowl of course."

It is now the kid's job to ask a follow-up question based on what I said. As you will see, he jumped the gun and transitioned to what he was dying to talk about. But at least he used a transition. It was a clumsy transition, however. We are still working on how to smoothly transition from one topic to another.

Kid: "Hmmm. Hey speaking of TV, do you watch Family Matters?"

Me: "Wait. I thought we were talking about my weekend. You need to find a smoother way to get to your topic of choice. and be patient." All the while, I'm thinking, "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? Family Matters? Was that the show from like 15 years ago with Urkel? Well my question was about to be answered.

Kid: "I know. I know. Sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It's just there is this show Family Matters, and it has this guy Urkel and he is HILARIOUS!! He's SO FUNNY!!! He's a genius."

Me: "Excuse me. Did you just say Urkel is a genius?"

Kid: "Well a comic genius. Can I show you my impersentation of him?" This is progress. Last month he would have broken into his Urkel routine without asking first. Now he knows better.

Me: "No."