John Elder Robison’s book, Look Me in the Eye, my life with Asperger’s has a chapter entitled “Logic vs. Small Talk.”
It’s an amusing and enlightening discussion of some of the problems that arise from the inability to read non-verbal cues, body language and tone of voice. Mr. Robison says that his conversational skills were learned over his lifetime, and he admits that his “inventory… is limited.” He closes the chapter with the fervent wish that people would recognize his difficulty with social language as a disability because, he says, he has been labeled an “arrogant jerk” for saying something incongruous. He “looks forward to the day when [his] handicap will afford [him] the same respect accorded to a guy in a wheelchair.” And he wouldn’t mind the “preferred parking” that could go with it!
Read the book.
Monday, March 1, 2010
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2 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this book too. I was also struck by this comment when I read it. I have often thought that if my son were in a wheelchair his peers would have treated him with so much more respect ... and the school would have insisted on it.
As my 12-year old daughter would say, "IKR" That's text-speak for "I know, right?!"
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