May 10, 2005

Thanks

By Tony Brown

to all of you for your observations/experiences re Asperger’s syndrome.

I teach the company’s diversity/inclusion/let’s all play nice classes (yeah, but I teach them my way, he he he…) and this was the first time I ever ran into someone who self-identified this right off the bat.

Interesting guy — smart as hell, huge head for numbers and statistics, lives on his own two hours away from work. In the first activity, introduced himself as “from a lower socioeconomic stratum, holder of a master’s degree in sociology with a concentration in statistics and surveys, and I have a neurocognitive disorder known as Asperger’s syndrome, which includes my having trouble with nonverbal social cues.”

Most people, of course, simply mention their new puppies, but I digress.

Contributed a lot during the session. Afterwards, approached me to find out if there were any social support networks at work for people with disabilities. (There aren’t. I’ve been trying to get someone interested in this idea for years. Figure I’ve found an ally.)

Oh, and where does our master’s degree holding friend work? In the mailroom. I was surprised. Bears looking into, hm? (He likes it, by the way — loves the sorting and categorizing.) He says he has understandable trouble getting through interviews.

Anyway, thank you again…will keep you posted if I turn up anything interesting or distressing…

In other news…don’t forget SPEAK tomorrow night (Wednesday). I’ll actually be there! The theme is “blue.”

About Tony Brown

Unknown's avatar
A poet with a history in slam, lots of publications; my personal poetry and a little bit of daily life and opinions. Read the page called "About..." for the details. View all posts by Tony Brown
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 at 10:52 pm and posted in uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

16 responses to “Thanks”

  • theal8r
    May 11th, 2005 at 1:05 pm

    I’m sure you’ve looked already but: http://www.aspergers.com/

    (pretty good site)
    Some studies think Autism, asperger’s and ADD are all linked somehow. One of our regulars has aspergers. He is sweet and smart and obsessed with trains but has serious issues with cleaning himself and his living space. His brother (who is younger and a computer whiz) works for us as a barista.

    Reply
  • theal8r
    May 11th, 2005 at 1:05 pm

    I’m sure you’ve looked already but: http://www.aspergers.com/

    (pretty good site)
    Some studies think Autism, asperger’s and ADD are all linked somehow. One of our regulars has aspergers. He is sweet and smart and obsessed with trains but has serious issues with cleaning himself and his living space. His brother (who is younger and a computer whiz) works for us as a barista.

    Reply
  • theal8r
    May 11th, 2005 at 1:05 pm

    I’m sure you’ve looked already but: http://www.aspergers.com/

    (pretty good site)
    Some studies think Autism, asperger’s and ADD are all linked somehow. One of our regulars has aspergers. He is sweet and smart and obsessed with trains but has serious issues with cleaning himself and his living space. His brother (who is younger and a computer whiz) works for us as a barista.

    Reply
  • theal8r
    May 11th, 2005 at 1:05 pm

    I’m sure you’ve looked already but: http://www.aspergers.com/

    (pretty good site)
    Some studies think Autism, asperger’s and ADD are all linked somehow. One of our regulars has aspergers. He is sweet and smart and obsessed with trains but has serious issues with cleaning himself and his living space. His brother (who is younger and a computer whiz) works for us as a barista.

    Reply
  • roxann_ireland
    May 11th, 2005 at 6:13 am

    had an interesting conversation going in one entry about an Asperger’s co-worker of his, and the rather specialized way he had to communicate with this coworker. It’s really a shame for the organization that this guy is stuck in the mailroom. There’s a tremendous resource being under-utilized, is he’s anything like some of the people that I’ve worked with. It would be really interesting to talk to some of the program managers for the development groups at my former group at MSFT. There were several developers who were either Asperger’s or pretty severely ADHD, and the most successful PM’s seemed to know how to work with their idiosyncracies. Sometimes it was just simple things: give the ADHD guy his own office so he could maintain a hyper-focused state, without the distraction of an officemate; making sure that key points in meetings that were made in figurative language by one team member were restated in concrete language, which was not only helped out the Asperger’s people, but was also very good for the rest of the team.

    And I do think that’s a worthwhile point to make – that often, adjustments made to ease the way for a particular person for whatever reason will turn out to benefit everyone.

    Reply
  • roxann_ireland
    May 11th, 2005 at 6:13 am

    had an interesting conversation going in one entry about an Asperger’s co-worker of his, and the rather specialized way he had to communicate with this coworker. It’s really a shame for the organization that this guy is stuck in the mailroom. There’s a tremendous resource being under-utilized, is he’s anything like some of the people that I’ve worked with. It would be really interesting to talk to some of the program managers for the development groups at my former group at MSFT. There were several developers who were either Asperger’s or pretty severely ADHD, and the most successful PM’s seemed to know how to work with their idiosyncracies. Sometimes it was just simple things: give the ADHD guy his own office so he could maintain a hyper-focused state, without the distraction of an officemate; making sure that key points in meetings that were made in figurative language by one team member were restated in concrete language, which was not only helped out the Asperger’s people, but was also very good for the rest of the team.

    And I do think that’s a worthwhile point to make – that often, adjustments made to ease the way for a particular person for whatever reason will turn out to benefit everyone.

    Reply
  • roxann_ireland
    May 11th, 2005 at 6:13 am

    had an interesting conversation going in one entry about an Asperger’s co-worker of his, and the rather specialized way he had to communicate with this coworker. It’s really a shame for the organization that this guy is stuck in the mailroom. There’s a tremendous resource being under-utilized, is he’s anything like some of the people that I’ve worked with. It would be really interesting to talk to some of the program managers for the development groups at my former group at MSFT. There were several developers who were either Asperger’s or pretty severely ADHD, and the most successful PM’s seemed to know how to work with their idiosyncracies. Sometimes it was just simple things: give the ADHD guy his own office so he could maintain a hyper-focused state, without the distraction of an officemate; making sure that key points in meetings that were made in figurative language by one team member were restated in concrete language, which was not only helped out the Asperger’s people, but was also very good for the rest of the team.

    And I do think that’s a worthwhile point to make – that often, adjustments made to ease the way for a particular person for whatever reason will turn out to benefit everyone.

    Reply
  • roxann_ireland
    May 11th, 2005 at 6:13 am

    had an interesting conversation going in one entry about an Asperger’s co-worker of his, and the rather specialized way he had to communicate with this coworker. It’s really a shame for the organization that this guy is stuck in the mailroom. There’s a tremendous resource being under-utilized, is he’s anything like some of the people that I’ve worked with. It would be really interesting to talk to some of the program managers for the development groups at my former group at MSFT. There were several developers who were either Asperger’s or pretty severely ADHD, and the most successful PM’s seemed to know how to work with their idiosyncracies. Sometimes it was just simple things: give the ADHD guy his own office so he could maintain a hyper-focused state, without the distraction of an officemate; making sure that key points in meetings that were made in figurative language by one team member were restated in concrete language, which was not only helped out the Asperger’s people, but was also very good for the rest of the team.

    And I do think that’s a worthwhile point to make – that often, adjustments made to ease the way for a particular person for whatever reason will turn out to benefit everyone.

    Reply
  • seracy
    May 11th, 2005 at 5:23 am

    …that sounds exactly like the kid I did martial arts with…

    Know of anyone I could hitch a ride from tomorrow night? (my only possible ride is sort of unavailable…)

    Reply
  • seracy
    May 11th, 2005 at 5:23 am

    …that sounds exactly like the kid I did martial arts with…

    Know of anyone I could hitch a ride from tomorrow night? (my only possible ride is sort of unavailable…)

    Reply
  • seracy
    May 11th, 2005 at 5:23 am

    …that sounds exactly like the kid I did martial arts with…

    Know of anyone I could hitch a ride from tomorrow night? (my only possible ride is sort of unavailable…)

    Reply
  • seracy
    May 11th, 2005 at 5:23 am

    …that sounds exactly like the kid I did martial arts with…

    Know of anyone I could hitch a ride from tomorrow night? (my only possible ride is sort of unavailable…)

    Reply
  • shockfactor
    May 11th, 2005 at 3:05 am

    hey, this is a sort of an lj hook-up. go check out she’s my friend and a poet to boot. you might enjoy reading some of her things.

    Reply
  • shockfactor
    May 11th, 2005 at 3:05 am

    hey, this is a sort of an lj hook-up. go check out she’s my friend and a poet to boot. you might enjoy reading some of her things.

    Reply
  • shockfactor
    May 11th, 2005 at 3:05 am

    hey, this is a sort of an lj hook-up. go check out she’s my friend and a poet to boot. you might enjoy reading some of her things.

    Reply
  • shockfactor
    May 11th, 2005 at 3:05 am

    hey, this is a sort of an lj hook-up. go check out she’s my friend and a poet to boot. you might enjoy reading some of her things.

    Reply

Leave a reply to shockfactor Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.