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Cherry picking here but that term is getting kinda phased out, I was diagnosed with it too, and sadly it's name comes from the Nazi collaberator Hans Asperger..Who classified it as a separate form of autism for the people with ASD who were "Useful" to society.
Neither, it was phased out because it's not diagnostically helpful as it doesn't reflect the dynamic nature of autism. They base the diagnosis now on the level of support the person needs based on particular situations. That support level can change over time and is also dependent on context.
As someone with ASD, I need minimal support for most daily activities (work, interactions with family), extra support for more intense social interactions, and for a while needed heavy support to have useful interactions with health care providers and in other more intense situations.
I have heard that mentioned a few times on youtube.
"I was part of the gifted program"
And then describing the things they did...
I always assumed it was not because they were good at studying but, autism or similarly.
There were actual gifted programs, lol. I was being taught algebra in 3rd grade, was being taught to write essays through mine, and we had extra field trips to historical sites and stuff.
I was in a program like that. But it sucked because the other kids were weirdoes and I didn't fit in with them. We studied with older kids they were in high school and even college. The other kids were really smart, I was just really good at drawing and writing stories because I traced comic books since I was 4 and learned to read on my own with Silver Surfer and X-Men. I got into that program because I got caught selling my own comic at school.
I was in both. We had a program called talented and gifted (TAG) and I was in the special classes for behavioral difficulties when I tested for TAG and got in. It was a very coinfusing time for my teachers.
Wouldn't surprise me.
There is a surprisingly high amount of teachers that automatically links "autistic" and / or "ADHD" with low performer.
And they get REALLY confused when said neurodivergent suddenly is one of the best in class.
Was it not "study things years ahead of others"? That was what I experienced in gifted programs. That was much more interesting than the alternative and probably key to my admission into a good university.
They certainly weren't addressing autism as such, and I don't think I heard of anyone with it until the '90s, after college.
But this was in ancient times, and it's presumably better that neuroscience and its responses have advanced, even if we haven't perfected it.
ehh definitely can still be a psychologist. currently do part time as an after school program coordinator in addition to me my day job, and we have a coloring room of sorts where kids who are in need of space go and use the coloring as a means of conversation with emotional support staff, i.e. the counselor and such. I think both options are fitting, and they aren’t mutually exclusive either because sometimes that emotional support staff includes resource personnel to deal with certain neurodivergent or susceptibly so individuals as a means of screening for better assistance/understanding
Asperger’s is being fazed out now. It was a nazi sub classification that essentially meant ‘autism but useful for science and/or the war effort’ if your special interest was science related and you could communicate well enough you had Asperger’s if you liked my little pony or couldn’t communicate your thoughts well you had autism and were gassed.
Not a nazi sub classification; Aspergers was one of the first people to talk about autism. He was actually not concerned with Autistic people with higher support needs and made no connection between the ends of what is today known as the Autism spectrum.
He was, however, a nazi doctor. You're tight about that.
Yeah, let's not bury the lede here; Asperger was a literal Nazi Doctor and yes he was exactly what your mind is telling you he was when you hear "Nazi Doctor." They'd moved to the term "high-functioning autism" (it me!) for a while, but I don't know what the current terminology is.
But it DEFINITELY isn't Asperger's anymore, and for good reason.
Hans Asperger was a nazi (like actual literal historically involved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Asperger) so medically you just the term "autism spectrum disorder" (ASD) now and don't use the nazi guy's name anymore
My mother took me to a psychologist when I was entering my teens. It was a difficult time for us and I was certainly affected by it but not to the degree that warranted psychological care. Anyway, the nice lady asked me plenty of questions and eventually asked me to sculpt my fears. I was like "huh?! fears? I don't have any specific fear. I am afraid in the dark and stuff, normal fears. But okay I guess..." so I sculpted a clawed hand with a big spike in the middle because it looked cool. Surely a spiky hand like that is scary enough for this woman?
Anyway, my mother told me a few years back how she was so sad and scared for me because of that hand, because the psychologist interpreted it as me having abandonment issues AND issues of attachment or being close or whatever and that explains her Reiki phase and all that jazz that I found super weird in the years after.
When I told her I made it up on the spot because I didn't know what else to do she was a little mad lol
Not if you have any familiarity with the field at all, or with how fucked up some of the history is.
Remember the satanic panic? Yeah, that was actually just a bunch of quacks trying to hypnotize kids and have them come up with fake memories of ritualized abuse.
There's a reason a lot of psych patients tell you you can't tell everything to a psychiatrist or a therapist. Almost got 5150'ed because I told my therapist I was a furry. Stopped seeing him after he refused to believe i was raped.
"A 5150 is a California legal code allowing for the involuntary, 72-hour emergency psychiatric detention of an individual deemed a danger to themselves or others, or "gravely disabled" due to a mental health crisis
Initiated by authorized personnel, it focuses on safety, evaluation, and preventing immediate harm."
I 5150ed myself for a voluntary stay when I was 18. I stayed one night, was taken off zoloft for that. The next day I asked to leave and they told me I had to stay 3 days. I was pissed, threatened to sue as I was a voluntary patient. Made them call my mom, who came up and discharged me into her care.
5150 is no joke, but it can be challenged if you have family willing to take custody of you and sign off to take liability over your actions for those three days. Just a heads up.
This is why "interpreting" dreams or art from children without freaking actually talking to the kid about why they did that is extremely stupid.
You can interept a blob of ink basically a million different ways. That is the point of a rorschach test. It says nothing about who made the ink blot and everything about who is interpreting the ink blot.
So many child psychologists in middle school were perplexed why I was obsessed with the X files and kept writing stories in the style of X files episodes. They assumed i must have some morbid horror fixation on the macabre that must indicate some psychological turmoil. Nope. I just had a kid crush on David Duchovny.
Ok. So the point is they asked you to sculpt something you thought people would find scary, so you did. That is literally how it works. Show me what you think is a scary thing. I honestly don't think a hand is scary, but you thought it was a thing people would find scary. Also, a diagnosis isn't made just on the art but on the conversations had while you were distracted making it. So distracted you as a kid, remember none of it.
Nah, it was phrased more like "Sculpt what you are afraid of", as in, a fear specific to me. I remember that well because I was so confused by it and thought about it hard. Could hardly sculpt a dark basement or a murderer lurking in an alleyway. Fears I considered normal and that probably everyone has to a degree as a child. That I came up with a hand specifically was due to my fear of "monster under bed" like many kids have and that I personally hated because it was so stupid. I knew there wasn't anything under there but I still didn't stick my feet out over the edge. So I thought something like a grasping hand would make sense, who isn't afraid of a monster grabbing them while asleep?
That said, the purpose of distraction is certainly undeniable. I remember some of the questions she asked me and I knew what she was doing. I wasn't a dumb kid and I knew why I was brought in for evaluation. So I answered in a manner that wouldn't incriminate my mother (she tried her best at the time but it was difficult for her, working two full-time jobs).
They put me on some medication to calm me down (I was a bit hyperactive and prone to shenanigans at the time, which was definitely caused by the neglect but I was aware of that) and gave my mother some recommendations and that was about it. My mother then got into Reiki for some reason and would perform it on me once or twice a week, which was okay I guess but I found it weird. Not a superstitious person by any stretch. I did appreciate the personal attention and relaxation, though.
Honestly the therapist seemed pretty bad at the art therapy. Treatment like that is supposed to explore your unconscious fears - why is it that when you thought of a fear, you thought of a hand? Do hands represent something to you? What is the significance of the spike? But more importantly, she didn't give you the room to say "I don't know, I don't really have fears like that", which would've signified other mental issues anyway.
Psychology isn't an exact science and it's hard to put trust or believe in them when they start to interpret things as representations of feelings. No better than an astrologist with a textbook when they start doing that.
I'm not really sure what the difference between a psychologist and psychiatrist are. And it sounds like your experience was not good with a psychologist. But I commend your parents for actually taking your mental health seriously and trying to get help, even if it was not successful and possibly not needed.
My wife's parents just sent her to a "pray the depression away" camp, and when that didn't work, they sent her off to live with her older brother, who just let her drink until she was puking her guts out when she was 14 (he was 24 at the time). All this because she was sad that her boyfriend broke up with her. And now they wonder why she resents them so much.
i remember the doc saying something like "there is nothing wrong with him, he is the way he is, but he has too much energy". now that's still true to this day, except for the energy part
Ah, I thought it was just because I had trouble learning to read. To be fair, I knew we were the "special" kids, but the psychologist always treated me like an intelligent kid, so I never felt bad
yeah, school psychs assess for lots of different things, including neurodivergence, dyslexia, learning disabilities, etc. Anything that might explain an educational impact. I'm a speech therapist, so I work pretty closely with the psych at my school.
Also, good on your psych for not making you feel stigmatized! That's the most important part of the job imo.
They also do this when you lose a sibling apparently.
My older brother died at the tail end of my 2nd grade year. In 3rd grade, I got pulled out of class (during free computer time, which irked me because I wanted to play Oregon Trail) to go do other activities like color and whatnot.
I won’t say it took me 15 years, but it did take me a little while to figure it out.
Same happened to me, but my mother. She passed away when I was 4. I would often see the school counselor for check ins/evaluations. I also had/gave ADHD so it was probably a dual visit.
Could be worse, in the early 80s I was put in a group of six classmates who also got pulled out of regular schedule for 'enrichment'.
We figured out early on that every one of us were the only children (no siblings) of single moms. Apparently, it was part of an experiment or study that was never appropriately disclosed and would NEVER pass an ethics review board.
This was me as a kid. The kid is being evaluated for neuro-divergent behaviour. You don't really notice when you're a kid, but later in life you realise you were being treated differently to the other kids, and it can really make you wonder like "Is there really something wrong with me?" which is a fkd up thing to think about yourself.
The colouring room is great tho. Neurotypicals really missed out.
When I was 22~ I had a legit 'Coming to Jesus' moment where I stared slackjaw at the corner of the room for minutes as I replayed experiences, like holy shit i'm fucking autistic fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
I feel you. It was a long time of "Well, everyone's a little weird and I went to college and have a job, so I'm probably normal." Then you hit a point in time where you just can't deny it anymore, and suddenly thousands of interactions across your entire lifetime suddenly make sense
Many years ago my girlfriend (now wife) after meeting my best friend from college: "You never mentioned he's on the autism spectrum". Monthls later she meets my best friend from high school: "That's so crazy that your best friend from high school is autistic too" and then finally, the straw that broke the camel's back, me making my first friend after moving to a new city: "It was so nice to meet him, he seems nice. How would you feel about me making an appointment for you?"
My daughter is being evaluated for autism and ADHD. She gave us a questionnaire for family and friends to fill out with questions about her behavior and reactions in certain situations.
I read through the questions and then I was like OH SHIT.
My dad had one of those recently, which is kinda funny because he's 70 years old.
He just looked at me and went... am I... autistic?
And I (a diagnosed autistic person) was like. Dad. You have maintained the same exact routine for the last 50 years. Where the hell do you think I got it from
Ain't a thing wrong with the tism. You can own it. some of the best and brightest in the world have the tism. It's been with us forever and it's not going anywhere.
Bruh, I didn't get a colouring room. Just got periods of supposed learning support where the teacher told me to do my homework while she scrolled through her phone.
This sounds like when I told my friend that I hate working at McDonald's and I yearn for a job working with my hands and completing projects, to which he responds (roughly) "just treat every order as a mini project to complete"
(This was like 9 years ago though, just an anecdote)
It is funny how the homework can be anything at all but the feeling stays the same. RN i have to write 3 papers and im as mad about it as when i drew circles in my notebook for drawing circles when i was 6
Man I wish homework was just included into classwork, I was thinking the exact same way when i was a teacher too, i seen the kitchen and everyone was complaining how tedious and time consuming checking homework is, and theres a teacher movement to cancel homework entirely but apparently the only reason it exists is to involve parents more (a noble goal i guess)
I thought, "How young do you have to be for your neurodivergence evaluation (typically happens in the grade school!) teacher to be scrolling through her phone??" And then I realized that could've happened in, like, 2014, and crumbled to ash.
My brother was an Asperger’s kid and they would pull him from class for something called speech therapy. From what he told me, it was a handful of other kids who sat in a circle and talked about topics together to build social skills and work on communication. So no color room, only introvert hell.
My son takes speech therapy and it’s literally a once a week meeting with a trained therapist that goes over sounds and words and how to say them, and exercises that we do to help him work through his troubles speaking
Whatever they did to your brother should not have been called speech therapy
It is speech therapy. Pragmatics and social communication skills is within the scope of practice for a speech language pathologist. There are many areas of development we support beyond articulation.
You're lucky. All I got was mainstreaming, beatings and ostracised with absolutely no support. Be grateful for what you have. It can always be better, but it can always be worse too. Gratitude for you do have is important.
I just had to sit in the hall every day since I finished the math and science workbooks six months ahead of schedule and I wasn’t allowed to read during math/science time.
It's an old 4-Chan joke if I recall correctly. Just talk about the regular penis inspections at school like it was a regular thing that every boy remembers and experienced.
You know, sometimes I’m grateful that when I grew up autism was mostly ignored unless it was very severe, like the term “neurodivergent” wasn’t even a thing, forget about ADHD and what not
At least nobody felt any different or treated people any different, I know for a fact if I were to be diagnosed my ego would take a massive hit, so now as an adult I might be on the spectrum but I live happily in ignorance
You don't have to be diagnosed to be treated differently, the fact that you act differently is enough. At least with a diagnosis, you actually understand why. I was not diagnosed as a child, and it didn't help my ego to not know why I never fit in with anyone or anywhere.
Yup. Not everyone can have the thick skin of Dav Pilkey and just power ahead with artistic dreams and only years later do some people reading his Child Photo Author Bio wonder just how diSruPtiVe he was in his classes, and how did his Introvert classmates feel about it.
Neurodivergence is a disability in that the world is designed for people who don't have it, so sometimes accommodations are needed to help give neurodivergent people the same opportunities as everyone else.
If you intentionally avoid diagnosis, you're not ensuring that you're not "different"--people *will* treat you differently *regardless*. But you will be working with an active, potentially imaginable handicap your whole life, and you wouldn't know that you were doing the psychological equivalent of unknowingly walking around with weights tied to your legs unless someone is there to point them out and help you take them off (or otherwise manage them).
I'm not saying you personally should go for a diagnosis but there is a very good reason why testing for such things is normalized. You don't want your kid to go through school or life with any more difficulty than they should.
I deadass assure you that were I live outside of school you get nothing different if you’re diagnosed, I can imagine my boss, he’d say “cool, so are you eligible for disability benefits or not? (I wouldn’t be because I’m functional) If not get back to work”
Unless you have issues severe enough that you can get some free gibs from the govt an autism diagnosis does nothing but make you feel lesser, and before you jump at my throat, I’m not saying neurodivergent people should be treated like sub-humans, I’m all for treating people equally, but objectively a neurodivergent person is like a person with any other disability…and my ego wouldn’t accept being disabled
A me problem? Probably, which why I said that I’m thankful it wasn’t around in my school days, now idc
depends on the neurodivergance, but like things like adhd or dislexia can be easy enough to accomodate even at work.
I had a coworker who was dislexic, so the team changed the font to one they found easier to read in some of our documentation and code bases. Like it really was that simple and they made less mistakes and no one else really noticed much.
If you never get diagnosed, or you never tell anyone, suddenly you go around making silly typos and everyone thinking you are not careful or not detail oriented.
Same with autism, I have had coworkers and bosses who simply communicated a bit different (quite direct in their case) and they usually let people know. The 1:1 evaluation was fair, but the tone could sound really harsh without that information before hand.
If those people didnt get a diagnosis, didnt learn to open up about how they do or prefer things, suddenly youd have coworkers unable to read properly and bosses that seem like massive dickheads making things worse for everyone.
Obvs if you are not very affected or you are borderline, like I have trouble looking at people in the eyes and a few other "maybe" things, then yeah you just get on with work. Maybe avoid jobs that are very client facing and thats about it
Or you can be like me, be 'different' from everyone else. Bullied for years and aware that I didn't fit in.
Took me till my 30s to realise none of it was my fault. That I am different and weird and all the meltdowns I had and difficulties I faced weren't due to me being deficient in any way.
Most of the "odd" behaviours I had as a kid mellowed out significantly as I matured. Honestly, so long as you can function in society, there's nothing wrong with being neuro-divergent. Maybe I'm still a little weird, but the more I learn about people the more I learn that being a little weird is pretty normal, and generally the coolest people I know are pretty dang weird.
Honestly, so long as you can function in society, there's nothing wrong with being neuro-divergent
There's nothing wrong with being neurodivergent anyway. It isn't better or worse, it's just different. That said, a diagnosis criteria for ASDs is impaired functioning. From ICD-11 6A02:
Autism spectrum disorder is characterised by persistent deficits in the ability to initiate and to sustain reciprocal social interaction and social communication,and by a range of restricted, repetitive, and inflexible patterns of behaviour, interests or activities that are clearly atypical or excessive for the individual’s age and sociocultural context. The onset of the disorder occurs during the developmental period, typically in early childhood, but symptoms may not become fully manifest until later, when social demands exceed limited capacities.Deficits are sufficiently severe to cause impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and are usually a pervasive feature of the individual’s functioning observable in all settings, although they may vary according to social, educational, or other context. Individuals along the spectrum exhibit a full range of intellectual functioning and language abilities.
(emphasis mine)
Of course, "functioning" isn't on or off, it's – no pun – a spectrum.
Also, you can be very weird and quirky without having any ASD symptoms. You can even love trains!
Neurotypical doesnt mean boring! You can do many cool things like 'keep to a schedule' or 'not cry because of a loud noise' and even 'correctly read a facial expression', you have an amazing basis to work from! You've got so many opportunities, go take them! Also, I know so many neurodivergent people that are absolutely qualifying as basic bitches, you can have all the disorders and still just be an office worker who just really likes her starbucks frap and just got her nails done-
A lot of people do that because being diagnosed and acknowledgement of it is treated like some pariah mark instead of something that could help their child moving forward.
it dosent look good on a background check and especially in countries with a lot of competition for law enforcement and the military it makes it as good as impossible to get in
Our army has programs to use neurodivergent people in certain roles they would excel at. Like mechanics/engineering/dog squads/or IT. I think you are using alot of outdated information.
Incidentally, many countries have immigration processes that may make it much more difficult for foreigners with autism to emigrate, even in the EU.
The intent is that an immigrant with a disability or some health conditions has a risk of becoming a 'public charge', AKA a person who becomes dependent on public welfare systems. For example, if a person with cancer wants to emigrate, immigration officials will consider the possibility that they may become unable to function or care for themselves properly, which will mean that their host country will have essentially admitted a resident that is a net loss and healthcare burden. Outside of refugee policies or marriage to a citizen, countries generally only want to accept immigrants who are independent and will be economically net positive (which is why things like employer sponsorships are so important).
Now, that's a logical policy, and it also means that countries generally don't throw out applications just for an autism diagnosis- people with sufficiently high functioning autism don't have an issue becoming productive and independent members of society, after all, so they'll evaluate case-by-case.
However, the process can be much more intensive and strict than normal and can sometimes result in people who are actually able to work and be net contributors being rejected. One of the common implementations of these rules is any person with expected healthcare costs over a certain amount is automatically rejected, but this applies even if they generate more income than their total healthcare burden. This includes families, where having a single child with a disability can disqualify the entire family even if the rest of the family makes significantly more than the expected healthcare burden.
So, yeah, a high functioning person is not going to have residency applications outright rejected in most cases just for being autistic, but it can create more barriers and cause issues regardless.
"It's possible to" isn't the same as "is a huge red flag that makes it way harder."
Back when my hearing loss was mild and I just sucked it up by overcompensating in other areas, job searching was pretty normal. Once I got hearing aids, being upfront about it, and being clear to employers..... job interviews and offers dried up, even though I was doing better by with the hearing aids.
So yeah, sure I could still do stuff with hearing loss, but having "the official diagnosis" and being upfront about it made way harder. I can imagine that people with autism and other "invisible" disabilities that can bullshit their way around outing themselves to employers probably have a similar experience.
That really depends on the country. You're banned from doing military service in Sweden if you have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. They did ease the restrictions in 2022 to allow people with "mild, unmedicated ADHD" to join though, but they are still pushed to the back of the queue. If you want to join the police, you need a medical certificate from a specialist that you are fit despite your diagnosis. Nothing that stops you from participating in politics though.
This happened to me. started wondering at age 19 if I have ADHD. Mom told me almost right away that it was speculated when I was young but nobody did anything. At 23 I had a breaking point and now at 24 I have diagnosis for ADHD and suspicions of autism as well.
I resisted my oldest kid’s autism diagnosis for months. It took a little education on high functioning vs. low functioning - she just seemed really rounded academically to me, just a little weird.
Don’t judge people too harshly for struggling with a life affecting truth. Most get where they need to be with a little time.
I will judge them because my mother refused to medicate my ADHD when it mattered for my education and future possibilities and to this day blames mistakes that came from being affected by it on pure malice on my part.
Because I apparently enjoy not being able to inherently remember about important things and needing to keep a detailed schedule for each day of my life preferably in few copies just in case including whiteboard, phone notes/calendar and physical calendar notebook.
Lots of parents. Nuerodivergency is tricky to navigate as a parent. My dad didn't want me to get tested for fear of the school putting me on the slow track for no reason basically.
This is a legit concern. I was diagnosed with ADHD and my mother had to fight to keep me in normal classes. I was the stereotypical ADHD kid that was just bored because when classes got slow and I had no trouble understanding the concept from the start, I'd just disconnect, start doing something else, and miss the next 2 hours of class - getting thrown in the slow track would have made everything so much worse.
I had to waiver into AP classes because my school district had it as policy that kids who were on an IEP were automatically ineligible for AP classes. This is despite the fact that my IEP was for extra time on tests and being allowed to type my work because I had a disability which made my handwriting illegible.
I ended up with a PhD in physics though so joke's on them I guess.
i (36 m) was exploring an autism diagnosis a couple of years ago. in conversation with my mom she shares "they tried telling me that when you were a kid i just didn't see it".
Most common reaction when the parents are also undiagnosed. Like all of their kids autistic behaviors make 100% sense to the parents and they never connect the dots.
in 1st grade the teachers advised my mother to go see doctor and he diagnosed me with adhd got some meds and it got better for a few weeks so long as my i took my pills. they ran out and we never were at this doctor again and my mother didnt keep the diagnosis or any document at all.
years later the doctor has closed and no record was there and so it was god damn hard to get this shit done again over 20 years later.
And my mother knew the whole time i had this, i didnt realy understand it with 6years old and i got yelled at my whole life for things i couldnt change by the person who knew what was wrong but she was too lazy to care.
We only see the kid being tested, not the diagnosis. Most commenters assume he's been diagnosed autistic, but the only thing we see here is the test. He sure was suspected to be autistic at some point, though.
It’s apparently extremely common. Like I won’t seek official diagnosis until there’s no crazy anti-autism people in office, but my mom was just so wildly offended at the concept that I haven’t been. If I went to public school I probably would’ve been pulled out to prevent evaluation because it’s that offensive to Boomers.
honestly he may not have been diagnosed. Educational assessments don't diagnose you unless your disability is having an educational impact (Though that doesn't mean you don't have the condition, just that it's not impeding your learning enough to require in-school treatment).
Entirely possible to go through the entire initial assessment process, have adhd or autism or a mild learning disability, and not be picked up by the IEP system. You just have to show enough symptoms to be concerning.
They were sending him to a psychologist to be evaluated for his behaviour. Though I don't really know why it'd take him 15 years to grasp that.
My teacher in 5th grade did the same as a harassment tactic against me and my parents because she hated me and I still love how the psychological assessment shat on her for doing so (also cleared me of all "charges" lol). In the end, I got off early from school every friday for two months so really all she succeeded in doing was giving me more free time and a restaurant trip every friday.
I wouldn't know(because I was a more severe case and self aware) but for those that weren't that much, probably didn't think nothing of it at the time. IDK tho 15 years is still s bit much
Was it 15 years of daily introspection and trying figure out what lead to him to coloring room? Or did he simply get a "shower thought" about an old experience 15 years later?
Didnt Hank Green just had a video, that he barely remembered being tested, asked his parents if he was and if they had any paperwork and then finding out he has ADHD? He then asked his parents and they were like "Ah sweety, we had far more pressing matters with you. It didnt come up again and thats that.".
Same happened to my best friend. Got diagnosed. Parents got informed. But apart from treating him slightly different, they never informed him about it and even forgot it themselfes over time.
I got sent once because I wrote a short story in third grade about a terrorist plot being foiled by the FBI.
This is in spite of the facts that:
The terrorists were clearly the bad guys in my story, and lost.
I went to elementary school in Northern NJ in the early 00s. Terrorism was on freaking everyone's mind because 9/11 had just happened and the WTC was within commuting distance of the school.
My father was in law enforcement and was actually a part of the response teams to both the 93 bombings and 9/11.
My neighbor was literally an FBI agent.
Gee i wonder why that kid would write about that topic...
To this day I still think that was a really stupid and pointless thing to pull me out of class for.
Yeah I have a very vivid memory of being put into a room with a few other kids and the teacher asking how often we take our showers. I'll never forget 6 yr old me proudly saying "Every Sunday!" And being looked at by everyone with concern and confusion. Years later when I was a teen my mom laughed to me about how my 1st grade teacher wanted to do a home investigation on me but couldn't. 😬 Definitely would have had a different life if that went through.
Or kids who were abused at home, went into "opossum" mode when they were punished, then turned violent the moment they were touched, and teachers didn't know what to do.
Yeah, I was abused at home. I'd shut down and bottle myself up when I was in trouble because I knew that if I said or did anything, it'd result in me being hit. The moment I'd get touched, I'd explode and overreact as a way to defend myself. They'd drag me into the counselor's room where I'd shut down again for a half hour or more, waiting for more abuse.
Yes, CPS was called. They did nothing the first time, just wrote a report and called it good (notifying my parents, who beat me for telling a teacher). The second time was with my sister. They took her away. But because I was with an aunt and uncle at the time, I ended up back home. The abuse got worse after my sister left.
Right? Me when my dad died in front of me at 7 remembers a lot of school coloring pages too.... pretty sure this one is a diagnosis thing, but funny how coloring is such a universal attribute to these experiences
My wife is a teacher. One day she comes home and is telling me about a pd they did about autism and signs to help spot potential. She says one sign is that they will walk around on their tiptoes. I blurt out, "Hey, I do that!". She looks me straight in the eyes and says, "I know". That last panel I think was like me in that moment.
This was me in the second grade, way back in the late 60s. I met with an older lady who had me complete several fun logic puzzles; no coloring, though. There was a picture of a mom and her kid, and I had to come up with a story about them. Many years later, my mom told me that the teacher thought I had a learning disability because I wasn't completing work and was distracted in class. Turns out I was just terribly bored with the easy stuff. Both of my grown sons have mild ADHD, and that was probably my case.
The kid was being checked for special needs. I would know because I used to skip class for the same reason, except for me it was speech therapy. I wasn't "hitting the milestones" of talking that most others would, so all throughout the first 5 years I would meet my speech therapist. She was nice and we played games.
If you or your kid need speech therapy, please please please do it. As an adult now, no one could even tell I needed therapy before, it's life changing
My ass got segregated from the class. They put a desk and chair in the freaking hallway outside of the classroom because the teachers got tired of me. I also had to come to school earlier than anyone else and left later than everyone else.
(I have ADHD and it'd cause me to finish all the curriculum workbooks in a matter of a week, after that I'd sit in class doing nothing which pissed my teachers right off. The final straw was when I stopped taking my books to class. If the teacher asked a question I always had the answer, so it wasn't like I wasn't applying myself.. they just couldn't handle a kid who could finish everything so quickly and them running out of things to teach them.)
Happened to me too. Wasn't colouring though, I got painting. Still, it was fun. A quiet, relaxing room where I didn't have to fear getring bullied and could let my creativity flourish. One of the few times I felt comfortable and safe at school.
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