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I hope that you don't mind my telling you a little about our son's story - a story that I hope he will someday be comfortable enough to tell himself. My wife and I knew there was something different about him from day one but we just could not "pin" down :-) - what it was. After multiple problems and getting kicked out of daycare as a 4 year old we decided it was time to take him to a neurologist. The neurologist advised us that "We should expect a vocational track" for him and that we should also "lower our expectations for him". He diagnosed him with ADHD. Our school district refused to do full evaluations, saying that he was a "manipulative only child".
Right before kindergarten we paid out-of-pocket for complete evaluations which confirmed multiple handicaps/disabilities. He started kindergarten in a special ed class. He spent his first 2 school years in special ed with very minimal mainstreaming (without support staff). When the school refused to mainstream him anymore, we decided that we had had enough. My wife left her job and home-schooled him for a year and a half. We also decided to move to a school district that was more accommodating to special needs kids, which is where we now live. He was reintroduced to a school environment by being placed in a special ed class with some mainstreaming for the 2nd half of 3rd grade; and then we, along with his child study team, decided the best thing to do for the following year was to repeat 3rd grade in a regular mainstreamed class with a personal aide. He is now in 10th grade and is in his 2nd year without an aide.
It wasn't until age 9, after searching for answers for years, that he was finally diagnosed (correctly) with Aspergers Syndrome (as you most certainly know as similar to high functioning autism). He had wrestled for a couple of years in the first town that we lived in, but he had taken a year off during the year we moved. In 2000, he started wrestling on our new town's recreation team; and absolutely no one would mistake him for an athlete, let alone a promising outstanding one. Fast forward to 2007 and he is a monumental success when considering where he came from. He was one of 30 freshmen chosen to be in the Science Academy at his High School and is an Honor Roll student. He has friends, plays the saxophone and is very creative with music and film. He earned a varsity letter in X-Country and Wrestling last year. By far, it has been the sport of wrestling that has given him the most satisfaction and taught him things in an instant that would have taken me days, weeks or months to impart to him if at all successful. This past year he was a couple of victories shy of qualifying for our state championships and set a record for most pins as a freshman (21) for his high school. He placed 2nd in Greco at the Cadet Eastern Regionals last spring and made the state Freestyle/Greco Fargo team again. My wife and I are very proud of him, as any parent can be of their son.
I do not doubt that there will be more setbacks along with the successes in his future. It is the tough road that he has already traveled and still navigating that hopefully prepares him for the next steps. But it has also been the many educators, physicians, friends, family members, coaches and especially organizations such as your's that has provided the help and support which has made the improbable, attainable. We are fooled every now and then, and we have to remind ourselves that no matter how successful he is, no matter how many seemingly insurmountable hurdles he has already overcome - he still has and will always have Aspergers.
Proud wrestling Dad
Note- "Proud Wrestling Dad" welcomes those who have children in a similar situation to contact him. You can contact Jason, who will forward your message.
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