1000% accurate.
I especially like shy boys all now being "Asperger's Syndrome." The hyper-diagnosis crowd even includes such well-know failures as suffering "Aspergers": Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and Issac Newton.
“The hyper-diagnosis crowd even includes such well-know failures as suffering “Aspergers”: Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and Issac Newton.”
I went through the DX on Aspergers. I fit it, as did basically all my compatriots at MIT.
Let me tell you about my grandson.
He was normal until about age 18 months. He had normal eye contact and was making verbal sounds. Then he went blank. This went on several months. We were tying to decide why he wasn't speaking. I suggested perhaps he was deaf. Another daughter noticed he didn't make eye contact. Eventually, he was taken to a teaching hospital where he was diagnosed as autistic.
From the very beginning, it was obvious the child was very bright but he was not aware of his surroundings. He would run away unless someone had hold of his hand at all times. Mom and Dad had to keep doors locked on the house at all times with locks he was not able to reach or he would open the door and simply walk away.
An interesting little story, once, one of their good friends who happened to be a policeman and also a child abuse investigator was watching him and he got away. He was missing for probably an hour or more and eventually found many blocks away.
By the time he was four, he still could not speak legibly. He walked on this tip toes (he still does), flapped his hands with bizarre walking movements.
He could read a newspaper. We knew because he would read it and mumble with sounds consistent with the words in the paper.
Preschool teachers told me he had written them a note, "I like to play with trucks and puzzles, too."
He could not speak it but he could write it--at age four. Spelling, punctuation and grammar all correct.
He's blossomed. I can brag about his accomplishments but let's just say he is now in college studying engineering but he still has some autistic quirks.
It would be impossible to claim the child did not have some rather severe autistic traits. It's undeniable. I want to know why.