John Elder Robinson's Diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome

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Asperger syndrome belongs to a group of childhood disorders commonly known as pervasive developmental disorders or PDD's. The disorder is recognized as a less severe case of autism. Children who have the disorder have a difficult time in social settings but excel in other areas of inteligence. The disorder is usually a lifelong struggle but has few cases where the patent recovers in adulthood. The disorder is not widely understood by the population but it is becoming a more well known disorder. There is currently no cure for this disorder.

After his often lonely, confusing and rough childhood, John Elder Robinson was finally diagnosed with asperger syndrome. The reason being that the disorder wasn't even existent the english DSM IV until the 1980's. He grew up being called names like "psychopath" and "psycho". So much so that, he began to believe what those people had labeled him as. Others would tell him that some of the worst murderer's in history behaved as he did. They had no empathy. It wasn't that John Elder didn't have empathy, he just didn't understand how to show it. (Robinson, 2007)

John Elder grew up in a difficult home. His father became an alcoholic when John was only in elementary school and shortly after his little brother was born. And soon after his father became virtually useless, his mother became extremely depressed and was diagnosed as being bipolar. Although John Elder Robinson had this so called "disease" called, asperger's, he basically raised his younger brother and accompished some amazing things in life. (Robinson, 2007)

John Elder Robinson says that Aspergers shouldn't be considered a handicap. He is among the group of those who believe it is should be considered a gift. He says, "Asperger's is no...

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...ome along with the difficulties that these kids face in schooling so there are often programs that these kids are enrolled in to help them get past these struggles.

This disorder is far better than many others that children are diagnosed with today. I'm so glad that children with aspergers can thrive as adults. Most seem to do well in careers that involve math, science. In the book I read, John Elder became and engineer and even worked with the famous band KISS. After understanding how he was suppose to react to other in social context, he began to function much better in those settings. Those with asperger's may suffer at a young age because of feeling rejected but they can most certainly overcome their challenges and be successful. I found this disorder interesting because people can almost cure themselves once they have enough knowledge about their own disorder.

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