Aspergers Syndrome

I had every hope and dream as every other pregnant mother.  On a beautify February day we brought our sweet daughter into this world.  She was as perfect as anyone could hope for.  Family members quickly commented on how alert she was.   Even at a tender few hours old she seemed to be checking everything out like she wasn’t going to have enough time to take everything in.  The next few months continued along the same path.  Being my first child I didn’t have anything to gauge her growth, abilities and interactions off of.  She was always busy.  ALWAYS!  As a toddler she had so much energy we used to say we needed to bottle it and sell it.  She would literally go go go until she dropped to the floor tired.  Seriously!  We found her several times on the floor like she had been running and literally ran out of steam and just dropped to the floor asleep.  We noticed she had problems with other children when playing and didn’t make friends well.  It was like she was overbearing and the other kids reacted negative to that.  She has never been agressive or mean, infact just the opposite.  We continued to notice how she picked up on things quickly and at a very young age.  Puzzles, blocks, computer games, organizing things.    She remembers everything she learns and has loved watching educational shows as well as computer research to learn just about anything.  Science such as geology, outerspace, dinosaurs, Egypt, and medacine are her favorites.  She excells in math and science. 

 In kindergarten we finally bit the bullet we had been trying to dodge for years and had her checked for ADHD since she still was go go go all the time and still had problems with interacting with other kids.  She was given the ADHD diagnosis and started on medications.  This helped, but we still noticed a difference.  We trucked along as most parents would, thinking this was all ADHD.  In 3rd grade two very awesome teachers noticed her handwriting was not where a 3rd graders should be.  Being naive parents we just thought she was lazy or even rushing her work.  They advised us they felt she had dysgraphia (a form of dyslexia that effects handwriting due to poor motor skills).  The school worked to diagnose and begin helping her with dysgraphia.  So, now I felt bad because we waited too long to get the ADHD diagnosis and now we had missed the clues of a handwriting problem.  We were trucking along with these two conditions now. 

 One day on the radio I heard someone speaking about the website www.autismspeaks.org.  I had heard of Autism, but didn’t feel my daughter had the sever symptoms of Autism, however, I still felt compelled to check out the site.  Sure enough, when I went through their checklist I still didn’t feel she had Autism.  I did however notice a link to something called Aspergers Syndrome.  This is where our little adventure begins!  I was able to mentally put a checkmark on so many things listed under Aspergers Syndrome.  The biggest thing that stood out to me at that moment was the poor handwriting due to lack of motor skills.  I also found little traits listed I never would have thought of questioning.  It was a moment!  I literally wanted to cry, because for the first time I felt I had found the reason for us not understanding our daughter and finally we just might have the secret decoder ring in posession to help us understand and help her.  

 I am starting this blog to talk about my experiences in diagnosis, symptoms and just everyday life of Aspergers Syndrome.