JACQUIELYNN FLOYD

[Guest guest]

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-

floyd_25met.ART.State.Edition1.36b14ee.html

JACQUIELYNN FLOYD

12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Jessie Kierbow was a strikingly low-maintenance baby. She was so

good, in fact, that her parents were occasionally uneasy.

" She never cried, " said Jessie's mom, r. " We couldn't tell

when she was sick, because she didn't cry. And she was fascinated

with the ceiling fan – she could stare at it for hours. "

When it came time for preschool, experts for the school district

where the family then lived examined Jessie and decided she was

mentally retarded.

That couldn't be right: Jessie wasn't like other kids, but she was

already scary-smart. Barely out of diapers, she could already read.

She hated sudden loud noises – " She clapped her hands over her ears, "

said – and she seemed to prefer her own company to being around

other children.

Finally, they found out what made Jessie so different: She had

Asperger's syndrome, a neurobiological disorder that most researchers

consider a form of autism.

Asperger's is classified in the medical journals as a disability, but

Jessie has the structures she needs to cope. She has wise, attentive

parents and an unusually supportive school environment.

As with other forms of autism, Asperger's diagnoses have been on the

increase in recent years.

In part, it's because it has been highlighted in the media.

Kuzmich, for instance, a former contestant on TV's popular reality

show America's Next Top Model, has been outspoken about her

Asperger's.

And then there's the simple fact that more doctors and diagnostic

specialists recognize it when they see it.

Although the syndrome was identified in the mid-1940s by Viennese

pediatrician Hans Asperger, too many kids, until recently, were

written off with cruel dismissal as odd, incorrigible or mentally

deficient.

Early diagnosis is critical, so children can start learning specific

strategies for dealing with the people around them. Too often, people

with Asperger's suffer from depression and frustration as a

consequence of the social isolation they feel.

In his highly readable memoir about living with Asperger's, author

Elder Robison describes the anger his behavior used to inspire

in the people around him. Its title is Look Me in the Eye: My Life

with Asperger's, a refrain that echoes back to his earliest memories.

A key trait of Asperger's is difficulty looking other people directly

in the eyes.

Mr. Robison, who worked creating technical effects for the rock band

Kiss and today is a businessman in Massachusetts, recounts a painful

childhood of feeling like a misfit. His condition was finally

diagnosed at age 40.

" Asperger's is not a disease, " he writes. " It's a way of being. There

is no cure, nor is there a need for one. "

People with Asperger's stand out as " odd " because they're different.

Their behavior seems unusual to most people because their brains work

differently. The easy social cues that most of us take for granted –

the chitchat, the appearance of interest or concern – don't make

instinctive sense to a person with Asperger's.

" Those just aren't automatic responses for these kids, " said Dr.

McLane, a Dallas pediatric psychologist whose practice

includes many children with Asperger's. " The good news is that these

are concrete behaviors someone can learn. "

It has become routine for Jessie's parents to issue her gentle

reminders to hit those social marks: answering general questions with

an equally polite generality, for instance.

There's a disarmingly candid logic to the Aspergerian thought

process. Should you say, carelessly, " We should have lunch some

time, " most people will answer, " Yes, we should. " A person with

Asperger's is more likely to say, " OK, when? " or, " No, I don't think

I want to. "

The other key aspect of Asperger's is an intense, laserlike focus on

a narrow range of interests. Most of us are generalists in the things

we think about; people with Asperger's tend to be super-specialists.

With Jessie, it's all things Japanese: language, art, books, food,

Pokemon cards, games and videos. Her dearest dream is to visit Tokyo.

" Tell me who you like better, " she wrote me in a recent e-mail. " Sig,

Rulue, Lemres or Schezo? "

She attached an anime video for me to watch. I had to remind her

that, not being able to read Japanese, I couldn't tell one from

another. (I have since learned to recognize a little cartoon guy

whose name means " Acorn Frog. " Jessie's favorite is a character whose

name translates rather oddly as " Strange Klug. " )

" It can be a variety of things, " Dr. McLane said. " Trains, vacuum

cleaners, geography, storm drains – those narrow interests will

preoccupy a lot of their time. "

Jessie's parents work to balance her familiar enthusiasm with new

ones. She loves music, for instance, and is crazy about game shows. A

common trait among Asperger's kids: They have a predictable format

and often deal with language. She can rattle off the names of popular

game-show hosts going back 30 years.

Her dad, Mike Kierbow, shares Jessie's keen sense of absurd comedy.

Together, they slyly invented a hilarious game show called " Hillbilly

Spelling Bee. " Their comedy routine made me laugh so hard my stomach

hurt.

Meeting Jessie, talking to her and swapping e-mails over a series of

months made me think hard about the polite social veneer we all adopt

to make the world think well of us. What would we be like without the

protective armor of conventional social behavior?

Whether she would be a dramatically different person without

Asperger's, I can't say. But 11-year-old Jessie Kierbow is one of the

most genuine people I have ever met. She's funny, sweet, affectionate

and astonishingly bright.

And it's absolutely real, because Jessie simply does not have the

ability to fake it. If she says she's happy to see you, you can take

it to the bank.

If people with Asperger's, as a group, lack the natural social skills

most of us use every day, they also tend to lack some of our darker

social habits too: artifice, manipulation, spite. Not, on balance, a

bad trade-off.

" It's a misperception that there's no positive outlook for these

kids, " Dr. McLane said. " It's not true that they're not going to be

able to go to college or get married or hold a job. They can do it if

they're taught the right skills. "

I hope Jessie learns everything she needs to navigate through life.

She has taught me a thing or two already.