Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Is this Asperger's?

I run across some posts about Evan O'Dorney , last year Spelling Bee champ and a very gifted mathematician (he either made or was commended for MOSP as an 8th grader).
Is he just "weird" or does this look like an Asperger's to you guys? I really do not know much about high functioning people with A.

You can google his name on you tube and see waht I mean.

Seems sort of weird to me to discuss a child by name on this board. How would he feel to find himself a subject of discussion here? Don't know anything about him, but I assume he's a kid since he was a spelling bee champ.

Moreover, it would be impossible to say whether he met the DSM IV criteria for a diagnosis of Aspergers. Anything less is just a stereotype, which really wouldn't be fair, either to those with Aspergers or to those who just "look" like it. (I've been around the block with people, in particular my own mother, suggesting ds might be autistic, for example. Not fun.)

I believe that he became a public person when his parents (or he himself) allowed for the interviews on news channels and talk TV.

I have run accross some very nasty posts about him, both kids and parents , on two different boards. Nowhere could I find the answer to my question. I am just trying to understand...

After all this is a forum about gifted kids, and he is definitely brilliant...

Yes, he is a public person. Legally, I expect you can discuss him without fear of an invasion of privacy claim. Personally, I'd rather not. But that's me...

Well, I have watched the video and I think this was a very nervous boy and that the presentator and the people were making fun of him.

I have to agree with snowgirl that diagnosis on the basis of interviews seems quite unfair and is certainly medically suspect.

I understand the curiosity, but as someone with lots of training in making such diagnoses and someone who does diagnose people for a living, I would be quite uncomfortable doing so from youtube.

If your question is really "what is Asperger's syndrome and how is it different from/the same as being just plain gifted?" I would suggest the book by James Webb: Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults. Gives a wonderful summary of similarities and how gifted children/adults often get the misdiagnosis of Asperger's. This addendeum to the book speaks to the common misdiagnosis of gifted children: http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Amend_MisdiagnosisOfAspergersDisorder.shtml

Because much of what is described in symptoms of Asperger's relies on an assessment of interests, habits and social interactions it would be impossible to make a diagnosis based on a youtube video. But Ania, I certainly understand your curiosity and believe you should continue to seek more info to understand the matter more fully. It's a good question that should be asked. Maybe just not about a specific person.

So you all peaked my curiousity and I googled this amazing young man and watched the you tube video. You didn't mention he had appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Is this exceptionally bright young person missing social cues....or is it perhaps that Jimmy Kimmel is just.....not.....that.....funny.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm..............

P.S. if Jimmy Kimmel happens to pop up here because I am speaking of his comedic talent in a non-complementary way, so be it!

Interesting.....
Some disability advocates firmly believe that a disability only exists within the social constructs that define it (meaning the disability) and the physical environment that limits ability. Many times what appears to be a disability in one context loses that appearance in a different context. Begs a bigger question: Are people diagnosed with Asperger's simply misunderstood and being noticed when in they are in the "wrong" place?

Perhaps Jimmy has the disability due to a lack of humor!

I do not think that the presentator wanted to be mean to the boy but he nevertheless treated him like some kind of interesting phenomenon, to be observed, even admired but not really to be taken as 'one of us' as he had come from another planet and his feelings were somehow different form 'ours'.

My son watched the videos. He saw one of them not too long after the boy won the spelling bee and we read comments on teachers.net that made me wonder if we should reconsider trying out for our spelling bee. This came at a time when my son was talking about feeling that some people thought he was a "freak and a geek" in our sports obsessed town and he was beginning to realize that it was not just in our little piece of the world that people sometimes react negatively to extremely smart kids and think of them as "weird."

When my son was eight, my own sister who thought she had to be smarter because she has a college degree, seemed very irritated at a family dinner when my son knew something that she did not and said something that she disagreed with. My son was right and she was wrong. While he was sitting there she said he must have Asperger's because she had read an article in Time magazine and she thought it sounded like him. He calmly told her that he had read the same article and that he knew he had some similarities but that he did not have it. We told my sister that the doctor said he did not have it and she said the doctor must be wrong.

People have told me he must have Asperger's when they found out that he read at 2 and that he memorized things very quickly and he talked more like an adult. We never see anything on television about 2E kids like my son, so people try to classify him based on the few things they have seen or heard about gifted kids. The kids in the gifted classes at our public school are not doing some of the things at the levels my son did and then he had the sensory based motor issues on top of that so I can see why people might think my son has Asperger's. He is different from the normal gifted kids at our school. To me, he seems more articulate and verbal and at a higher mental age than the gifted kids his age that I have seen.

At one point he said he might just add Asperger's to the list of disorders that he tells people he has when trying to explain his differences, even though he knows that he does not have it, just to make things easier, because more people have heard of Asperger's and he has some similar issues. Most people have not heard of motor dyspraxia. He tries to laugh some of this off but I think it must bother him sometimes. In addition to "freak and a geek" he is now saying that he is a "sarcastic dyspraxic" and he was thinking of making up a little rap song to go along with it. I think his attitude about his disabiity and his ability to joke about it is one thing his friends like about him.

My son realized that he made some people uncomfortable with questions that were not easily answered or when he pointed out exceptions to the rules that he noticed. He has become a lot quieter since that realization. I feel sad about this, but like my son once told me, we have to deal with what is, not how it should be.

I don't watch much tv, and hardly had heard of Jimmy Kimmel when someone told me about a mock up video of Jimmy's girlfriend singing, "I'm bleeping Matt Damon". I had to go see it and it is really funny, though very crude humor. Jimmy did a video of his own in retaliation. It was called, "I'm bleeping Ben Affleck".

Way OT, but I have always enjoyed Matt Damon. It's fun to see him in this.

I haven't gone to check out the boy in question. AS is part of a very broad spectrum, and who am I to say whether he falls on it or where exactly he might place? No offense intended to the OP, I am sure she wasn't being malicious.

If you ever let on to DS that you told that story here - give him a hug from me! Way to go Lori's son! I'm so proud of him! In my house the ability to act that way is considered 'normal.' Shame on sister! Next time you tell her that diagnosising children within earshot is off limits.

Go Lori H for homeschooling! You should be very proud of him.

Grinity

I am not ofended guys and I am truly sorry if I have offended any of you which I think I did. Never my intention.
I am asking questions, because I know that many here have 2E kids, and I really know nothing about them. I did not post the links on purpose - if someone is interested he/she can look them up. I am not spreading sensation here, I think ?

Actually the interview with CNN shows the boy to be quite arrogant, IMO, but maybe it is only his lack of social skills.
What I do not understand, is why, if he is 2E or having some kinds of "issues" (how else to put it , so I do not offend anyone again?), isn't it addressed somewhere during an interview?
If there is an elephant in the room, introduce it. Much less questions would be asked afterward and everybody would feel more comfortable. "Issues" (???) were raised during interview with J, but never explained.
I do not know what is a high functioning Aspergers, what are sensory issues etc. I quess that is why I am asking.
The boy is brilliant....

I get it Ania. I think sensory issues are quite common in our nueroatypical gifted world. Extreme intelligence is considered nueroatypical. It's easier to understand it if you know someone that is dealing with it.

AKA: Sarah Silverman is Jimmy Kimmel's girlfriend I think. She has a show called the Sarah Silverman program and my DH tivo's it. IF she was absolutely, stinking, hilarious, I would NEVER admit to that as her humor is highly juvenile, if not outright offensive.

p.s. wouldn't it be funny if someone googled Jimmy Kimmel and the search spider brought them to this conversation in this forum?!?!?!?!

I love irony (singing)

I had no idea that Silverman has her own show. Have you seen the Ben Affleck video clip? It has cameos by Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, and many others. I have to say I was laughing out loud when I watched it.

Google is at times a scary thing... Check your own name and see what kind of weird hits you get!

The show's not running right now, but when it comes on again (comedy central?) you should check it out, it's high-larious...Ummm... I mean, just attrocious!!!!!

I have googled my real name many times and I come up with......bum bum bummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,nothing!

INCOGNEATO!!!!!!!