Interviews With People Affected by Asperger Syndrome

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INTERVIEWS
   

A mother Talks about he daughter and book

Dannie's Dilemmas For UK Readers

Dannie's Dilemmas for USA Readers

AS is Asperger-syndrome.me.uk and CH is Carol Haldane

AS: Can you Start by introducing yourself and tell us a little about your links with Asperger Syndrome

CH: My name is Carol Haldane and myself and Karen Jones are both the authors of Dannie's Dilemmas. I am 36 years old and Karen 39. We met in 2001 at 'my Daughters school, Karen could see that I was having difficulty controlling 'Dannie' and we became friends. 'Dannie was not diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome until she was seven years old, before that time I was informed constantly from doctors and school that 'Dannie' was perfectly fine and there was nothing wrong with her. It was a four year battle to get her diagnosed and once she was diagnosed like many parents we were informed your daughter has Aspergers Syndrome and goodbye. That was the last help I received from the medical profession regarding Aspergers. I did my own research through the internet to find out more about Aspergers and most of my information came through trial and error bringing up 'Dannie'. This is why we recently organized  to set up a parents coffee morning in a local school for parents of Aspergers children, this was done to help parents to have someone else to talk to regarding what the children are doing and to try and help the ones who are not yet diagnosed to get help quicker. The coffee morning has only been running for a few weeks and is run by Aspergers parents for Aspergers parents and seems to be going well.

AS: You said you where having difficulty controlling Dannie what sort of thing was she doing?

CH: Dannie would do lots of unusual things which I could not get her to stop doing, for example she would watch TV upside down until her face turned blue, spin round on her back on the floor constantly, she would be on the pavement then all of a sudden walk onto the road for no reason saying that the cars should stop because they could see her. She had so many imaginary animals (her obsession is animals) that she would talk to them in public places. Telling people to move out the way for her animals to pass. She had a doll which she named 'Rosie' and she would tell everyone including the school that she had a little sister that she looks after and she would not go anywhere without it. I had so many people telling me that they didn't know I had another child and I had to explain that I didn't. She would climb trees and jump off from the top. The list is endless
 

AS: You said the doctors where no help and like myself you had to do most of you research yourself so were would you say was the best place to find out the information you required?

CH: I found out most of my information from The National Autistic Society and from a few books but I found that most sites and books would only give you medical information which was helpful to understand the basics of Aspergers Syndrome but I couldn't find any examples of what other Aspergers children were doing, so it was quite hard to work out when 'Dannie' was just being naughty and when she couldn't help what she was doing as the Aspergers was behind it

AS: I had the same problems myself. So what made you decide to write a book?

CH: Exactly for this reason, I used to search books for examples of what children were actually doing. It's like I know they think literally but I had no examples of how this affected their lives, what were kids actually doing that was an example of thinking literally and what was the best thing to do about it. I thought that it would be nice to write some books with daily examples of what especially 'Dannie' was getting up to, what my reaction has been and also by the fact that the books are interactive and have two separate ending it is down to the reader to decide how 'Dannie' should handle the Dilemma she is in. I chose this method because then it gives the Aspergers children a chance to think of which choice to make, although there is no right or wrong ending it shows the children that there are other ways to deal with daily situations

AS: Now for the important question. You mentioned the book you wrote was a intereactive book about how dannie should handle he dilemma, could you tell us abit more about the book and how you hope it will help overs?

CH: 'Dannie' like a baby and talks down to her instead of being patient she ends up being arrogant and rude. In this story 'Dannie's' Dilemma is should she tell her mother of the way the shop assistant is treating her or should she just keep quiet and take what the assistant is saying. The reason 'Dannie' is unsure of what to do is because she had earlier took her mother literally when her mother had told her to behave in the shop and do as the assistant had told her to do.

AS: Thank you for your time to do this interview and wish all the best with your book I will add a link to the side bar of this page for people who would like to buy `Dannie`s Dilemma` which I have read and its a very good book.

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The following Interview was between Elaine Walker from Suite101.com and a father who had a son with asperger syndrome.

EW is Elaine Walker the interview and LC is the father's answers

EW : You have a child with Asperger Syndrome. How old was he when you first noticed his symptoms?

LC: We first thought there was something different when he was about 1 or 2 years old. He was late in walking and talking and with his coordination skills.

He could count to 100 by the age of 3 and he knew his alphabet. We thought he was clever for his age but on the other hand he was a bit clumsy.

EW: What about when he started school. Did the teachers notice anything different?

LC: The things the teacher started to notice was his willingness to learn and that he was ahead of most children in reading and maths but he was too easy to distract if he was not kept busy. At playtime he was very clumsy, for example he had problems catching a ball.

EW: Was there anything special that he enjoyed learning about?

LC: He took a big interest in subjects such as Pokemon, and the solar system and he also loved general knowledge.

EW: Living in Britain, what sort of help and advice was available to you?

LC: At first there was no help or support because of his age but we knew there was something not right and then when the teachers started to notice things we finally got referred to the school doctor. By this time he was 5 years old. At the age of 6 he was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome but little help was available at first, all we were given was a few websites to look at.

As my son grew older he was always getting into trouble at school for shouting out or getting distracted, which is part of the Aspergers. He used to say it was his naughty part of his brain making him do it.

EW: That must have been difficult for you and your son.

LC: It was getting to the point that he knew he had a problem so we tried talking to the school about ways to explain the condition to my son. The school did not want us to do it because they thought he might play on it. At this time my son was about 8 and my wife and I had nowhere to turn to so we started researching and came across different books and websites.

EW: Did you find anything useful?

LC: A book by Luke Jackson (Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome) was different. It was written by a child and in a child’s terms. After reading the book we decided to try and see if my son was ready to learn about the condition, so one night at bedtime we gave the book to him and asked him to read it.

The idea was if he linked things this boy in the book was doing to things he was doing we knew he was ready. Within 10 minutes he came down and asked if he had Aspergers because this boy was like him. We knew he was ready so we started to try and explain more about the condition.

EW: Thank you.

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