My Name Is...

James: I am 10 years old. I have mild Aspergers.
I have written this 350 word speech to tell you what it's like.

I don't like it when my daily routine is disturbed. I found out I have Aspergers on October 6th 2007 when my mum told me. I was amazed... 10 years of not knowing. It sometimes feels I don't belong on planet Earth. It sometimes feels like I belong on a planet I made up: 'Zinagonomaya'. My teacher once caught me numbering my pages. When I play music, I always look at the timer, and when it doesn't have a timer, I ask my friend to bring the disc round to my house. All the players in our house have a timer. I am good at math and I am very interested to find my score in a test. I am the only one in the year who likes school tests.
It isn't easy for me to make friends, but I have done it. I have a friend called Jake who is coming with me to my secondary school and another friend called Paul who sadly isn't going to the same secondary school as me and there's Kieran. Kieran is coming to the same secondary school as me and he is my best friend.
They are not my only friends. I have more. I was so amazed when I found out I had Aspergers and wanted to mix with those who were more autistic then me (I am only the tiniest bit autistic).
This will help all of you out there: me and my mum do scenarios. I pick an incident in the playground and we play out the roles of each person both as it should be done and as it shouldn't be done. Also she draws faces and I have to say what they are. Also at my school, there is a group. They pick 4 unsociable people and do some scenes. I was picked. Now I am much better at knowing what someone else is thinking and doing the right thing.
Written by James Crawley.

James is the son of Maxine Crawley and has performed in many children's theatre performances in the United Kingdom.
James is 11 years old and was diagnosed with Aspergers 2 years ago. We had quite a struggle with how he was treated at school until then. He even spent one school year separated from the other kids behind a screen and started to see himself as a 'bad' child. As a result we took him out of that school and he spent the last 2 years at our village school where the teachers treated him, and us, with respect and understanding. He has thrived there and is about to move to Secondary school where there will be new challenges - I will be writing about the transition later in the year!
James is an extraordinary child and my heart bursts with pride for him. He has a gift for maths, languages and computers but he also has the kindest of hearts and has so bravely faced the school playground day after day even when he was bullied for being 'weird'. Since I told him he has Aspergers last year I have watched him logically work out how he needs to change his outward self at school and he now has a super set of friends and even a best friend! He is able to control his more unusual traits so the kids are not afraid of him anymore at school, but comes home and lets it all hang out here which we fully endorse.
James and I will be writing more each issue and we would welcome contact and stories as well as questions from anyone who reads our experiences.