genetic aspergers?

[Guest guest]

Since joining this group, I have learned more about autism and Aspergers in the past week than I picked up on my own in the past 2 years!

My son is autistic. My father and uncles were all a little "odd"...my aunt and I always used to wonder how such focused overacheivers managed to have such ADD kids (4 out of 5). Then it hit me. Overachiever, socially inept, doesn't make eye contact, brilliant....my paternal grandmother. I realized for the first time this AM that she almost NEVER looks me in the eye. All her friends were colleagues from the college she taught at or were friends of my grandfather...none close. She never calls people on the phone (neither do I if I can avoid it). Sound a little Asperger-y to you? I have had a lot of the same idiosyncrasies growing up, plus many facial tics that thank God I have mostly outgrown. I am going to get tested for Asperger's one of these days, because I recognize a lot of the behaviors in myself.

Okay, my question. Those of us here, do you also have ADD or ASD-type things going on with you and/or your family? Do you or your spouse share some Aspergers characteristics with your child (ren)? I am starting to look into how dominant is this characteristic and whether my youngest may be "doomed" to suffer some of the same things his siblings go through, what I went through as a child. All three of my children are boys, 2 of them are on the spectrum. My little one is starting the whole test thing this month...although he seems pretty normal except for his screaming..which is a whole other topic I want to broach but since my DH is staring at me expectantly (he needs to use the computer) I will stop while I am ahead.

Thanks for being here and I really enjoy reading about all this! I wish I had joined this group years ago.

Jill Ramos

Las Vegas

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered, but I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: "...no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall." - Eleanor Roosevelt