The Lincoln Log

If you’ve ever met a person who annoyed you by talking a lot without taking note that you were getting annoyed, maybe that person had autism and couldn’t pick up on your body language.

Gwen Northcutt, my sister, has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a high functioning autism. That means that she can talk normally and do schoolwork but occasionally has a difficult time with social clues. My sister is a pretty typical 15 year old who is now in her sophomore year of high school.

When my other sister and I were young we knew Gwen was a bit different. She didn’t quite react or “get” the jokes we’d say to each other, occasionally taking our jokes literally instead of metaphorically. Sometimes that came out as being extremely funny in itself. Gwen also used to have a quick temper and a short fuse which drove my other sister and I up the wall, resulting in fights because I liked annoying my little sisters. It also resulted in hearing about her getting into fights or yelling matches with other kids at school.

I didn’t really realize why Gwen acted this way until our parents told us that she was diagnosed with Autism. My first reaction was, “OK. So what? She’s still our goofy sister.” It didn’t really affect us or change our views of Gwen at all. We just saw it as an explanation for the certain nuances our sister had.

Growing up with help from a supporting family and therapy has helped my sister make a lot of progress with her Autism. When my sister was young she would get so frustrated with homework and teachers that she had a hard time doing her studies. Now she just needs a gentle reminder and she usually jumps to it. Sometimes she tries to get out of it and do something else, but that’s pretty common for any student. She also understands more of the metaphorical jokes my other sister and I share as well. Most importantly, she has learned how to control her temper. Now we’ll tease each other and laugh about it, unlike before where we would end up yelling at each other and fighting. Now Gwen has a pleasant, spunky attitude about life and we have lots of fun joking around.

I wanted to dispel the myths about what having a condition like this, so I asked her questions about some of her intrests.

“I love drawing because of the sense of freedom I have with it,” Gwen said. “I can draw anything I want and am not restricted at all.”

Her favorite subjects are math and science.

“They use a system, so it’s very logical,” Gwen said. “I can take that system and use it on a lot of things and it still works, so I like math a lot.”

The game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is also one of her favorite past times because of the game’s repetitive logical rhythms.

A subject she dislikes is English.

“English doesn’t have a very good system to it or it doesn’t make much sense to me,” Gwen said. “Plus, I don’t like open ended questions in English too much because it’s hard to know exactly what not to do.”

I also asked Theresa, our mother, questions about raising a daughter with the struggles of Aspergers syndrome.

“It was most difficult when she had such challenging behavior and nothing seemed to change it,” Theresa said. “It was also difficult finding the right help and making school work for her but with lots of effort on her part and mine she is the success we knew she could be.”

The only obstacle left to overcome seems to be ignorance.

“What continues to be difficult is the ignorance of the general public and the school system dealing with someone like her,” Theresa said. “I had to educate myself on the laws and that still didn’t always help because people in the SFUSD didn’t follow them.”

Some people come up to me and tell me that my sister is “different.” I reply, “Yeah, she’s different just like everyone else.”

We all have pros and cons and different ways of doing things. One person’s way may not be the same as someone else’s but as long as it works and it doesn’t hurt anyone or break any laws, who is to say it’s the wrong way? Gwen has a different way of looking at things and doing things because she’s autistic but that doesn’t mean the way she does it is wrong.