My best friend has a son, a 6 year old diagnosed with Asperger's (a milder form of autism). He's extremely handsome already and very smart (already doing basic math, writing sentences, etc) but socially he has a hard time...when he's comfortable, he'll talk your ear off, but it's always about a fantasy world. We're not talking normal kid imagination...he's convinced these things are happening and gets very upset with any sort of change to his routine or when his imaginary world is contradicted, and he tends to be high-strung (one time, I showed him how to blow a dried dandilion head to make the seeds float, and that turned into an hour long cry over how he broke it and an even longer explanation of how we were really helping more grow...). Although, I know undiagnosed people that are like this, so maybe the doctors are wrong, and I've never understood how they can diagnose someone as young as two. Overall, Oliver's a joy to be around...it's just a matter of directing the conversation away from his obsessions before getting stuck in a 4 hour long conversation about his pet car and how the Transformer's movie really happened to him and they all live in his bedroom (he saw the movie once when it first came out and can quote it line by line). It takes all kinds in this world, and I know Jodie's life would be a lot less interesting and she'd be lost without him.
