Look me in the Eye, My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison should be required for high school students to read. It is a true account of the author’s life living with Asperger’s. Asperger’s syndrome is on the spectrum of Autism. In the book, Robison discussed his life from the mid-1900’s in Amherst, Massachusetts to present day. He goes through an account of his childhood memories, and adulthood capabilities. His childhood proved it difficult to connect with other kids. As he got older, he developed better social skills that helped him make friends. He struggled with certain behaviors; making eye contact with others was difficult for him, and he had a tendency of blurting out random things. He did not understand why people thought these
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After they moved to Shutesbury, Massachusetts, John’s father started to drink alcohol more often to deal with stress. During the day hours he was perfectly fine, but when night fell, he became violent. John was the primary victim of his dad’s physical abuse. As for his mother, she had a breakdown and suffered with serious mental health issues. She would try to convince John that their father was a dangerous scary man, and that he was out to kill the entire family. Asperger’s made it difficult for John to understand all that was going on with his mother and father. By the time John was thirteen and his brother was five, they found Dr. Finch. He counseled the family and helped them with their issues, such as his dad’s alcoholism and violence. John got to name his parents whatever he wished. He decided to name his dad Stupid and his mother Slave. Dr. Finch also forbade his father to ever be violent towards John no matter what he says. From that day on, he was never hit or abused by his father again. That Christmas John received a computer kit to assemble by hand. It required many parts and John understood it all from reading books on those kind of projects. John then found his true passion. He wanted to continue to make things and construct them to be even better. As time went on, John learned how to use his “talent” for more advanced projects. He loved music and had a keen ear for finding errors with the sound of the bass. For instance, he could tell why an amp was not playing loud enough. He would then reconstruct something and make it ten times better than it was. Word got around, and he ended up working for KISS. The guitarist, Ace, had an idea to have his guitar shoot out fire during his solo. He was hoping that John could make it happen. John was intrigued by this idea. Mostly, he was in disbelief that the lead guitarist of KISS had asked him to do the project. He knew he could
After they moved to Shutesbury, Massachusetts, John’s father started to drink alcohol more often to deal with stress. During the day hours he was perfectly fine, but when night fell, he became violent. John was the primary victim of his dad’s physical abuse. As for his mother, she had a breakdown and suffered with serious mental health issues. She would try to convince John that their father was a dangerous scary man, and that he was out to kill the entire family. Asperger’s made it difficult for John to understand all that was going on with his mother and father. By the time John was thirteen and his brother was five, they found Dr. Finch. He counseled the family and helped them with their issues, such as his dad’s alcoholism and violence. John got to name his parents whatever he wished. He decided to name his dad Stupid and his mother Slave. Dr. Finch also forbade his father to ever be violent towards John no matter what he says. From that day on, he was never hit or abused by his father again. That Christmas John received a computer kit to assemble by hand. It required many parts and John understood it all from reading books on those kind of projects. John then found his true passion. He wanted to continue to make things and construct them to be even better. As time went on, John learned how to use his “talent” for more advanced projects. He loved music and had a keen ear for finding errors with the sound of the bass. For instance, he could tell why an amp was not playing loud enough. He would then reconstruct something and make it ten times better than it was. Word got around, and he ended up working for KISS. The guitarist, Ace, had an idea to have his guitar shoot out fire during his solo. He was hoping that John could make it happen. John was intrigued by this idea. Mostly, he was in disbelief that the lead guitarist of KISS had asked him to do the project. He knew he could