Curtis wrote "a non-fiction book on autism" as a project at the end of his second grade school year. Here's the full text.

pg 1
Hello, my name is Curtis and I know all about art, math, drawing roads, and autism. This non fiction book will be all about autism.

pg.2
I have a special doctor to help with autism. My doctor's name is Dr. Hubbard. Her office is in Portland! It's on the second floor.


pg.3
It's true I have a support team. Every kid with autism needs support. My support team is Jamie, Caron, Mom, and Dad!

pg.4
Most people with autism like to do the same things over and over again. I like to draw roads over and over again.

pg.5
Another fact about autism is that I can remember a lot of information. I remember Ms. Barber's photo copy ID and she doesn't. She says she wants my brain but she is not going to get it.

pg.6
Another fact about autism is I get better and better at things. Today I had a fire drill and I didn't need a head start like i did in kindergarden (sic) and first grade.

pg.7
Sometimes when I'm feeling overwhelmed I use an expression that my brain is fried. That means I need a break. My brain was fried after the NWEA test.

pg.8
The last fact about autism is that it makes me awesome because it makes me smart and unique!!!

Curtis

About the Author

My favorite number is 100. I like to get 500 nick cash and play my favorite game Monkeyquest. My other favorite thing to do is draw roads. My favorite color is red. I like going to the beach with my mom and I hate schoolwork and homework. The end.

Building Buddies

We have a moment with my son Alex one evening after bath time. (He'll be 14 soon and still has a "bath time"!) The witching hour of bed time (he still has a bed time!) and Alex won't go to bed.

"Alex, bed!""Two!" he says. "Two, two. Red two!"

By the dining room table sits a box of Legos that Ned left there. Alex charges toward it, but it's time for bed and there's no time for Legos.

"Alex, bed!"

Alex does this thing when he's pissed: He lunges with his forearm in his mouth. He bites and -- this is incredible to believe considering his weight of about four sticks of butter when he was born -- he slams into me and sends me back a step. I push back harder than he expects I will, I think, and his foot catches on the chair nearby and he wobbles.

"Alex, go to bed!"

You can't say he started it, not really, my wife Jill will later claim. No, but I don't like getting shoved and a lot of other people don't, either, and Alex needs to learn that even if he is pissed and biting his forearm.

"Red two!"

I have no clue what this means as he begins raking through the plastic Container Store bin of Legos. His hands rasp and rasp through the Legos until the sound drives me ask what I find myself asking all the time, if seems: "Alex -- what??"

"Red two, red two!"

Up comes Alex's younger brother Ned. I turn to him like Kirk turns to Scotty when stuff begins to happen to the Enterprise. "Ned, see if you can find out what he wants, please?

"Ned, who is typically developing, bends down. The brothers paw through the Legos while I hold the flashlight and we all want to go to bed except Alex. It begins to feel like a moment when it's hard to believe this time won't mean a thing someday.

"What'cha buildin', buddy?" Ned says to Alex, plowing right in and raking and raking with his older brother. Alex comes up with a few red ones. Ned looks at him. "Two," Alex says. "Two."

"He's building a two!" Ned cries.

Yes he is. A couple across and a couple more diagonally and a couple more across and there's a two. It does look more like a Z, but I've learned you take what Alex can give you when it comes to autism. He then makes a one that looks a lot like a seven, but I say nothing.

"Cool, Alex!"

Alex takes the new Lego letter and number to bed -- he won't, in fact, go to bed without them -- and he wriggles down under the blankets and goes to merciful sleep only when the Lego things are beside him.

Jeff Stimpson lives in New York with his wife and two sons. He is the author of Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie and Alex the Boy: Episodes From a Family’s Life With Autism (both available on Amazon) and has a blog about his family at jeffslife.tripod.com/alextheboy. He contributes to various sites and publications on special-needs parenting, such as Autism-Asperger’s Digest, Autism Spectrum News, the Autism Society news blog, and An Anthology of Disability Literature (available on Amazon). He is on LinkedIn under “Jeff Stimpson” and Twitter under “Jeffslife.”

The fifth annual World Autism Awareness Day is April 2, 2012. Every year, autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness-raising events. How will you celebrate? To share your events, please "Like" the World Autism Awareness Day page on Facebook and submit your events by posting the information on the wall.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/waad


Thanks to Laura, Drawing roads is now on facebook so be sure to like us. https://www.facebook.com/drawingroads

Drawing roads also passed 40,000 site views last week so thank you for reading. Our goal is simply to spread awareness as well as to show that while autism isn't ideal, it isn't the end of the line. We also know we are very lucky and that there are thousands of other parents who do everything we've done and may never get the sort of results we have gotten and hope to get in the future.


Today, I'm just going to list a couple of my favorite 'autistic' behaviors we see from Curtis.

1.) Planned Intros- Something funny or interesting happens on a Tuesday and Curtis will tell me that he is going to tell his cousin about it on Saturday. The first few times I put it out of my mind but come Saturday it's always "Hey Jayden, " and what comes out is exactly what he said he would tell him. It's as fresh in his mind as if we just talked about it on the way over. It's pretty amazing.

2.) Time Stamps- The ability to time stamp things in his brain is cool. The things he chooses to time stamp are a riot. He can't tell you every day he did anything, but if you ask him what day he learned to play the online game Sushi Cat, he will tell you "June 4, 2011".

I'll throw in a least favorite. He is pretty much always booing while others are cheering. Literally.  And he has a general lack of empathy in a number of situations. Say a kid falls off his bike, Curt is more likely to laugh than express concern. He is still processing how to deal with these types of situations and I see it as a work in progress.



Greg, Dad

Standardized testing for children with autism has typically been difficult. The structure of the tests often does more to emphasize the limitations of those with autism rather than display their strengths. This article from Live Science shows how typical intelligence tests, specifically the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), are a poor fit for autistic people and give them little chance to successfully pass the test. It's a timed test that relies on a lot of cultural and social knowledge. Not exactly the forte of the autistic mind.

Instead, tests like the Raven's Progressive Matrices or the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI), avoid obstacles brought about by behavior and language difficulties. Children are asked to solve problems by designs and patterns which are often strengths of children with autism. According to the study, autistic kids score about 30% better on these tests than on the more commonly used "WISC".

"Many of those who are considered low-functioning—if you give them other intelligence tests, you will find hidden potential," she says. "They can solve really complex problems if you give them material that they can optimally process."

"The hidden potential of autistic people seems to fall in common areas—tasks that involve pattern recognition, logical reasoning and picking out irregularities in data or arguments...Recognizing these talents, rather than pushing them aside to focus on the drawbacks of autism, could benefit not just autistic people, but everyone else as well.'

The article also offers up a couple of great conclusions

1.) "It doesn't mean that it's easy for them in everyday life, or that it's easy for their parents or teachers," Soulieres says. "But it shows that they have this reasoning potential, and maybe we have to start teaching them differently and stop making the assumption that they won't learn."

2.) Mottron concludes that perhaps autism is not really a disease at all—that it is perhaps just a different way of looking at the world that should be celebrated rather than viewed as pathology.

Studies such as this sure seem to be on the right track. There are obvious advantages to the autistic mind that don't fit in our conventional ways of evaluating intelligence. These kids don't learn the same way, they don't tests the same way, but there is a whole lot more to their minds than conventional test scores or school evaluations would indicate it. Personally, I like this post in the comments

"Has anyone stopped to think that maybe autism is a form evolution? Perhaps a more reasonable logical human species? Think about it. No war. No race pre-occupation. No religion. They could be just what our race needs......."

Greg, Dad

People with autism are rarely employable, so I've read, and end up doing jobs that require simple, repetitive direction. But that doesn't quite gel with what I've seen in my own son, who is routinely grouped with the brightest in his class for advanced mathematics. Indeed, something doesn't add up, and this article by Science Daily explains that it's time to stop emphasizing the shortcomings of autism and make use of the superior attributes that people with autism have to offer.

"It's amazing to me that for decades scientists have estimated the magnitude of mental retardation based on the administration of inappropriate tests, and on the misinterpretation of autistic strengths," Mottron added.

Temple Grandin is the most well known case of translating autistic abilities into mainstream success. She turned her feelings of being threatened by her surroundings into a revolutionary method for the ethical treatment of animals in slaughter plants. It's more humane to the animals but also increased the functionality of slaughterhouses. She also developed the "squeeze machine" to calm a hyper-sensitive person. In each case, her autistic mind served as a benefit and not a detriment to her work. It seems to me that if we utilized the brain of those with autism, over trying to figure out a way to make them more like us, we might all be better off for it.

The article goes on to say: "Dawson and other autistic individuals have convinced me that, in many instances, people with autism need more than anything opportunities, frequently support, but rarely treatment," Mottron said. "As a result, my lab and others believe autism should be described and investigated as an accepted variant within human species, not as a defect to be suppressed."

Temple Grandin has also said she would not support a cure to wipe out the autism spectrum. Curt's mom and I have discussed the same thing. Raising a child with autism isn't easy, but as interesting, intelligent, and unique as these kids can be, "curing" them would seem almost a shame. Seems to me they would be better off solving world economic problems and debt crisis, or in medicine. These people are smart, they cut through the BS, and they see things normally developed people do not. It seems like they have a whole lot more to offer than menial employment and our sympathies.

"Recent data and my own personal experience suggest it's time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, not a cross to bear," Mottron said.

Greg, Dad