Laughing gleefully with a friend while jumping on a trampoline in his back yard, 10-year-old Patrick Strout of Gales Ferry appears to be just like any other child. But as he will tell you himself, Patrick faces a different set of challenges than many other children, as he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, when he was 5 years old.
“He’s very aware of that fact that he has autism, and he’s not shy about letting other people know as well,” Patrick’s mother, Kathie Strout, explained. “He really has a sense of who he is. He calls himself ‘The Patrick Strout that stands out.’”
April was Autism Awareness Month, and in a demonstration of his willingness to help others understand the challenges that he and other autistic children like him face daily, Patrick and his mother sat down with the Times to share their story and their hopes for the future.
Described as a brain development disorder, autism significantly impairs communication and socialization skills and engenders very limited and highly repetitive behavior, all apparent within the first few years of a child’s life. Children with Asperger’s, a form of autism on the higher end of the spectrum, share many of the same characteristics, however they exhibit no delay in language or cognitive development and frequently have an average to superior IQ, often making it difficult to detect at an early age. Yet as children grow older, the six main characteristics of Asperger’s become increasingly apparent.
Perhaps most noticeable is difficulty with social interaction, as children with Asperger’s often talk at other people instead of having a two-way conversation. This often leads to misunderstandings and can cause problems when the child attempts to make friends. Also, children with Asperger’s usually view language as a way to relay information, rarely sharing thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Likewise, a general inability to judge facial expressions and body language (one of a number of cognitive issues) often causes children with Asperger’s to struggle to empathize with others, frequently speaking their mind without understanding someone else’s feelings. Other cognitive issues include inflexibility, problems planning, impulse control, and the ability to stay on task.
Additionally, children with Asperger’s often have a narrow range of interests such as numbers, flags, animals, the weather, and signs. Poor fine and/or gross motor skills produce challenges in athletic activities and simpler tasks like riding a bike or tying shoelaces.
Sensory issues are prevalent, too, with some children not wanting to be touched at all, while others relish being hugged or having heavy pillows or blankets on top of them.
Strout, who has devoted years of her life to Patrick and the spread of autism awareness, described Patrick’s early years in which he grew like any other child, hitting his talking, walking, and other milestones on pace if not ahead of time. In fact when Patrick was around 3 years old, Strout said that she and her husband, Peter, were convinced that Patrick was possibly a genius as he had already memorized all upper- and lowercase letters, the names and shapes of all 50 states, state capitals, and the names of every president of the United States by order, year, and by face.
The universal symbol of autism is a puzzle piece, and as Strout soon found out, Patrick’s intelligence was just a piece of his “puzzle.” Around the same time, Strout noticed other signs, such as differences in the way Patrick interacted with other children, difficulties transitioning to and from activities, and frequent meltdowns when things went differently than what he had anticipated.
“The behavior became so problematic that it wasn’t long before we, as a family, were unable to go out in public very much without expecting Patrick to throw himself down on the floor no matter where we were, to the dismay and irritation of other people in the restaurant thinking they were going to have a quiet dinner,” Strout said. “We had him evaluated by a professional in Rhode Island, who thought he had Asperger’s, but asked us to go to our public school since he was over the age of 3. They also told us it would be of benefit to put Patrick on the Yale Child Study waiting list, which was up to two years long.”
Strout said that as soon as Patrick turned 5 he was evaluated at Yale and was formally diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. The diagnosis began a journey that led the Strouts to support groups, conferences, and local agencies in the search for knowledge about Asperger’s. Now, five years later, Patrick is in fifth grade at Juliet W. Long School in Gales Ferry where he is mainstreamed and works one on one with a paraprofessional in an ordinary fifth-grade classroom. While Strout admits that there have been some bad days along with the good, she said she couldn’t be prouder of how Patrick has dealt with and welcomed his differences, noting that the Ledyard School System has been very cooperative and accommodating as well. Strout stressed that children with Asperger’s have the same core deficits as children with low-functioning autism, yet because they are usually well-spoken and of average or higher intelligence, their neurological deficits often make them appear to be children with behavioral issues, not a child with autism. This can lead to an array of unfortunate miscommunications, including children with Asperger’s being bullied, misunderstood by parents, teachers, and other adults, high incidences of anxiety and depression, and, starting around the teenage years, even suicide. This is important to understand because with more awareness, all of these negative outcomes are completely unavoidable.
“If we don’t pick up on this and give them what they need to get by, then we all lose,” Strout said. “So many of these kids are extremely bright and very gifted in certain areas; we have a lot we can learn from them and they have a lot they can learn from us. We just need to be understanding of what their challenges are because they can be great assets to our communities.”
Patrick has become somewhat of an ambassador for autism in his school and local community. Never afraid to let others know that he has Asperger’s, this year at his mother’s suggestion and Patrick’s approval the special education teacher at Juliet W. Long School conducted two-hour sessions in Patrick’s class answering students’ questions and sharing information about autism and Asperger’s to help everyone to better understand the symptoms. It is Patrick’s ability and desire to spread awareness that really makes Strout feel very hopeful for his future.
“He asks me all the time, ‘Mom, am I still your hero?’ Because I always tell him that, and it’s true. He wakes up every morning and everyone asks him to do amazing things. And yet every morning he gets up with a smile on his face knowing full well all the challenges that he’ll face just that day.
“He says all the time, ‘I’m going to change the world, I’m going to make them listen to me.’ And while I know he’s not going to change the world in the sense that he means, he has made more people listen to him in his short time here so far than I have in all my years and I know he’ll change many people’s attitudes.”
For information on autism please visit www.autismsocietyofct.org or www.ctfeat.org. If you think your child has some of the characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome, and you would like more information, please contact Lisa Allyn, the facilitator of the Preston Support Group at 886-2991, or Dr. Danielle Green, the facilitator of the Groton Support Group at 739-2410.