Siblings without Asperger's

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Siblings without Asperger's

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In our family, we talk very freely about the fact that my oldest daughter has Asperger's. I wanted to make a point from the beginning, that it was not a developmental delay. It was not a problem. It was something that described her and who she was. We are very honest about it in our house. I remember saying something in front of a friend once, mentioning something. My daughter, Isabel, mentioned something. My friend says, "Does she know she has Asperger's?" And I said, "Of course, she knows she has Asperger's. She knows that it means that she is smarter than other kids. She knows that it means that she has to try extra hard to make a connection with someone, be thoughtful of their feelings." The other mom sort of looked at me like, wow, okay. I realized, at the moment, that I had done a very good thing for my daughter, which was to frame the fact that she has Asperger's before anybody else had the opportunity to say what it meant. To give her a voice that she had. To allow it to be her own experience.

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Sarah Maizes

Mom & Blogger

Sarah Maizes is an author, freelance writer, comedian and founder of MommyLITEonline.com, a parenting humor site. She is the author of several humor books including, Got Milf? The Modern Mom’s Guide to Feeling Fabulous, Looking Great and Rocking a Minivan; and three books for children; On My Way To The Bath, On My Way to Bed and the third book in the series On My Way to School to be published in 2014.Her work has been featured in Los Angeles Magazine, Babytalk, on MSNBC.com, E! Television’s “Fashion Police,” and on DailyCandyKids.com.She is a regular contributor to TODAY.com, The Huffington Post, and CBS/LosAngeles.com’s “Best of LA.”  Her work has also been featured on Glamour.com, MarieClaire.com, ParentsConnect.com, Momtourage.com, TheWellMom.com and Autisable.com – a website for parents dealing with Autism.She has appeared on The Today Show, KTLA, CNN Headline News with Brad Pomerance, NPR's "What Would Rob Do?,"ABC News Now’s “Moms Get Real with Ju Ju Chang,” and is a regular contributor to NPR’s “Tell Me More with Michel Martin,” and “HuffingtonPostLIVE” - but  is most celebrated for her ability to scale tiny jungle gyms, pack a lunch in under a minute, and park her full-size minivan in a compact space.     

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Transcription: 
In our family, we talk very freely about the fact that my oldest daughter has Asperger's. I wanted to make a point from the beginning, that it was not a developmental delay. It was not a problem. It was something that described her and who she was. We are very honest about it in our house. I remember saying something in front of a friend once, mentioning something. My daughter, Isabel, mentioned something. My friend says, "Does she know she has Asperger's?" And I said, "Of course, she knows she has Asperger's. She knows that it means that she is smarter than other kids. She knows that it means that she has to try extra hard to make a connection with someone, be thoughtful of their feelings." The other mom sort of looked at me like, wow, okay. I realized, at the moment, that I had done a very good thing for my daughter, which was to frame the fact that she has Asperger's before anybody else had the opportunity to say what it meant. To give her a voice that she had. To allow it to be her own experience.