AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
A 12-year-old girl is attracting world attention as she sheds fascinating new light on what it is like to live with Asperger Syndrome - through her electrifying poetry.
Yasmin and mom Margaret with her new collection
Yasmin Latif's verse has sparked intense interest from the UK'S Autism Society and she's even featuring as one of the main subjects of a new documentary on the condition by the UK's Islam Channel.
That piece is to broadcast to millions worldwide very shortly as her collection, The Way I See the World, makes waves on website Amazon.
Yasmin is a regular visitor to what she considers her second home of Kerry, making the trips back from her London home with Blennerville-native mom Margaret Dillane.
"She was diagnosed with Asperger's when she was just seven years of age and we were told that she would never be able to empathise with others or even express herself," mom Margaret told The Kerryman this week.
How wrong the diagnosticians were. Just five years later and Yasmin's communication skills are coming on in leaps and bounds - all tied in with her love of writing poetry.
"It's extraordinary the degree to which Yasmin is coming out of herself through her poetry all the time.
"She's growing in leaps and bounds but the poetry is really opening a window on what she feels and thinks about her world," mom Margaret said.
It's for this reason the Autism society is so interested in Yasmin.
Rarely has someone with the condition - which is on the autism spectrum - articulated what it is actually like living with it to the degree Yasmin has.
Certainly not someone so young.
"One of the poems is called 'Negativity and when I read the title I was like 'where is this coming from?'," Margaret said.
She was astounded as she read on: "Your negativity is the plant that's dying/ your soil is the candle flickering/ the trees are dying, while the snow is flickering."
"She's talking about herself inside, when she experiences negativity from others she's dying."
It was what Yasmin told the documentary crew just last week that really blew everyone away. Asked, at the end of filming, if there was anything she would like to say, Yasmin replied: "I would like to tell everyone something: I wouldn't know myself without Asperger's and I wouldn't want to live without it. This is who I am."
The filmmakers were deeply affected by it. "It was an answer that really turned things on its head for us. I was all about trying to get the autism out of my girl with various therapies for years.
"I never thought about it in the positive way Yasmin clearly does."
Kerryman
SOURCE: http://www.independent.ie/regionals...hange-my-aspergers-for-anything-34250811.html
A 12-year-old girl is attracting world attention as she sheds fascinating new light on what it is like to live with Asperger Syndrome - through her electrifying poetry.
Yasmin and mom Margaret with her new collection
Yasmin Latif's verse has sparked intense interest from the UK'S Autism Society and she's even featuring as one of the main subjects of a new documentary on the condition by the UK's Islam Channel.
That piece is to broadcast to millions worldwide very shortly as her collection, The Way I See the World, makes waves on website Amazon.
Yasmin is a regular visitor to what she considers her second home of Kerry, making the trips back from her London home with Blennerville-native mom Margaret Dillane.
"She was diagnosed with Asperger's when she was just seven years of age and we were told that she would never be able to empathise with others or even express herself," mom Margaret told The Kerryman this week.
How wrong the diagnosticians were. Just five years later and Yasmin's communication skills are coming on in leaps and bounds - all tied in with her love of writing poetry.
"It's extraordinary the degree to which Yasmin is coming out of herself through her poetry all the time.
"She's growing in leaps and bounds but the poetry is really opening a window on what she feels and thinks about her world," mom Margaret said.
It's for this reason the Autism society is so interested in Yasmin.
Rarely has someone with the condition - which is on the autism spectrum - articulated what it is actually like living with it to the degree Yasmin has.
Certainly not someone so young.
"One of the poems is called 'Negativity and when I read the title I was like 'where is this coming from?'," Margaret said.
She was astounded as she read on: "Your negativity is the plant that's dying/ your soil is the candle flickering/ the trees are dying, while the snow is flickering."
"She's talking about herself inside, when she experiences negativity from others she's dying."
It was what Yasmin told the documentary crew just last week that really blew everyone away. Asked, at the end of filming, if there was anything she would like to say, Yasmin replied: "I would like to tell everyone something: I wouldn't know myself without Asperger's and I wouldn't want to live without it. This is who I am."
The filmmakers were deeply affected by it. "It was an answer that really turned things on its head for us. I was all about trying to get the autism out of my girl with various therapies for years.
"I never thought about it in the positive way Yasmin clearly does."
Kerryman
SOURCE: http://www.independent.ie/regionals...hange-my-aspergers-for-anything-34250811.html
