Like the person diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, you may also engage in actions or activities that work for you but may be perceived as eccentric, odd, or peculiar by others. Some of you may have a specific sequence mapped out for the manner in which you grocery shop, run errands, or tend to the yard work. It makes no sense to anyone else but is perfectly logical to you. You may have very precise routines in the way you clean; organize closets, shelves, and cupboards (including arranging canned foods in alphabetical order — labels facing out, of course); or set up your workspace on the job. You may even become distressed or infuriated if anyone “messes” with your system. Your workspace may, to the uninitiated, appear disheveled. What no one else may know is that, at any given moment, you can lay your hands on the exact data report in question upon request.

Another example is the way you type at a keyboard. You may be a speed typist, hitting the keys beautifully and by rote, as if riding a bicycle. Or you may be someone who was never able to “hardwire” your brain to type with both hands simultaneously. To compensate, you may use one finger on each hand to hunt and peck your way to successful typing. Perhaps you can use only one finger on one hand to type. In the end, isn't the result of the facile typist and the “hunt-and-pecker” typist the same? Does it, then, make any difference how either arrived at the same result? Hold this thought as you broach appreciating your child's unique way of being in the world. This will provide you with the patience to allow your child's unique thought processes to unfold.