Special Skills

“Can your kids do anything better than normal kids can?”

I’ve heard that question many times and in many ways since my sons were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and each time, it makes me wonder. Do youngsters on the spectrum need to do anything better? Isn’t it enough that they’re just kids? But, they don’t stay little. One is now twenty-one and the other will soon be twenty, so the question becomes more relevant with each tick in my clock of life.

            James likes ancient Middle Eastern languages like Syriac, the source of Arabic and Hebrew. Could he parley that interest into a career? Maybe, but he’d have to master at least one of those languages to be a translator, possibly for the Defense Department. He remembers details of things that interest him. From the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien to the history of the Byzantine empire, to the techniques of stop motion animation, he spouts out knowledge that surprises even me.

Ian also has his own talents. Horses relax around him, and, when he works with them, they act as if they’d found their soul mate. His coach noticed, saying that it was like they fell asleep with him in the saddle. Can he make a living as a groom, though? Equine career opportunities may be limited with his disability. Outside the barn, he absorbs the tiniest minutia from comic book-based action movies. He searches the web constantly for updates, which he breathlessly relates to me as his latest discovery.

            Sleep evaded me after someone asked me of their talents. The answer hit me with the simplicity of a pie in the face. It doesn’t matter. Whatever comes, we’ll deal with it. It’s enough that they are who they are. I closed my eyes and drifted off.

William R. Bartlett lives in Belton with his family.