Anything You Can Do, I Can Too

We've all heard of the song "Anything You Can Do, I can do Better." This is something that I have taken with me own life and adapted it into the way I approach social interaction and things dealing with Asperger's Syndrome. I believe that all children have the ability to learn, feel, love, and connect with other children. Some will be better at it than others. Some people have made autism out to be this horrible thing and blown it way out of proportion. The truth is, autism is no...
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We've all heard of the song "Anything You Can Do, I can do Better." This is something that I have taken with me own life and adapted it into the way I approach social interaction and things dealing with Asperger's Syndrome. I believe that all children have the ability to learn, feel, love, and connect with other children. Some will be better at it than others. Some people have made autism out to be this horrible thing and blown it way out of proportion. The truth is, autism is no different than anything else in life. For example, look at two people who play basketball. Let's compare Michael Jordan to myself in that regard. I played basketball in elementary school and now I shoot hoops for fun every now and then. MJ is a professional and played for the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan is the greatest player to ever play in the National Basketball Association. If he and I were to play one on one I would most certainly lose. My conclusion is Michael Jordan is a better basketball player than I am. I'm okay with that. Believe it or not, there are some things that I could be better at than he is.This is no different than comparing a neurotypical child to a child on the autism spectrum. While one might excel and have great social skills, the other might go onto become an engineer or invent something useful to society. While we all alike in some ways, we are also different in many other ways.You have to remember no matter what that we are all unique. We all have something to contribute to this world. That's the beauty of life. When you put all of us together we have a great variety of people with different likes and interest. If everyone all liked the same thing there wouldn't be enough of it to go around for all of us.Always remember some people are going to be better at something than you are; but you are also better at something than they are. Have this attitude about life in general, especially about autism. There are many things that you will learn from your child if you are patient and allow them to teach and communicate to you.Something important that I've learned in my journey of studying autism spectrum disorders is that are kids will comply with a request. They will most often do what we ask. It might not be on our time table as it may take them longer. Children with autism will comply with a request if given the chance. It may take them longer than other children and we just have to remember to be patient. Stop, take that extra minute out of your busy agenda for that day and allow the child to show you he or she can listen and comply with request.What a lot of people don't realize is that everyone has some social awkwardness in their lifetime. We are not perfect. It's natural to mess up every now and then. I want you to remember this next phrase every time you as a parent are having a rough day or are discouraged with the frustrations of autism.Everyone experiences symptoms of autism. People have anxiety every day. People also have Obsessive Compulsive disorder. These are quite normal things in our society. Other people's children go through some of the same things that your child is. Your child just experiences each thing on a more intense level. Your child also might have a combination of those symptoms that go together to make what we know as autism spectrum disorders.So remember, everyone has aspie moments all throughout their life. You are not alone and with over 750,000 children in the United States alone with an autism spectrum diagnosis you have plenty of support.