PrinceMarvel
Member
My name is Aaron Matthew Payne. I am a 35-year-old high-functioning autistic; however, I was not diagnosed until I was about 33 years old.
My early life began with my dad in the military. There was a time where we lived in Maryland, I think I was like two or three, and the doctors has been working on some kind of diagnosis for me, but my dad was re-stationed in California before anything became official. I guess at this time, it was the parents who kept the medical records instead of the doctors, and my dad had only one copy of whatever diagnosis was being worked on for me and he gave it to the school and they 'lost' it.
My developmental years were like any other person on the autistic spectrum. Slow to talk, walk, run, ride a bicycle, I didn't even get my license until I was like 21, and I'm still not always comfortable driving, though I have never been in any major accidents, I have had several fender benders, I just get distracted at the wrong moment. I have actually developed a fear that I will get distracted at the wrong time and hit somebody with my car and kill them, and I value life a lot.
Throughout my education years, I attended normal classes. From the time I was in either Kindergarten or first grade until the second half of my sixth grade year, I had been put into a speech therapy class for my lazy r's, and I also has a stuttering problem, I have since overcome these, but occasionally they still creep up. And the only reason I no longer went was because I went two years to a private Christian school, and by the time I came back to middle school, they said that I no longer needed speech therapy.
Also, in fourth and sixth grade, I was put into a couple of special reading classes, though I never could understand why, especially my sixth grade year, as I was being given easy words to spell like dog and cat, and I had always been a really good speller.
I didn't start struggling until my last two years of high school, I was given tests but they didn't show anything. And then in college, at first they went by what the high school had tested, but eventually I was retested and showed signs of dyslexia, the problem with this was that everyone in my family had some form of dyslexia, my dad, mom, brother and sisters, but I didn't know any better and thought nothing of it.
My college years were a struggle, part of it could have been my un-diagnosed autism, but I also didn't have any real idea of what I had wanted to do with my life, which could have also been part of my delayed processing.
In 2005, I got my first job, a security guard working for the same company as my dad and brother, and because they were already working there, they pretty much gave me the job. But, even here I still struggled, I had a hard time approaching people. My next two jobs were also security jobs, with the same problem.
Then I got a job at a place called StarCrest, it was sort of like Avon, but they had multiple magazines under different names. I worked in the data entry position, because I liked using computers. And I struggled here, I had a hard time getting to work on time, I would spend too much time out sick, and I don't think my typing skills ever really improved. Then I started working for the school as a substitute para-educator (another job I had gotten into because of family members, this time it was my dad and older sister), which is also called a para-professional in other states. I think I did fine when I was given an office job. But I struggled working with the students, for the same reason as the security jobs, I had a hard time approaching them.
Like most autistic, I have my repetitive motion, for me it was folding paper, which at first I didn't know was even called origami, but even now I refuse to call my paper craft origami, because I have developed my own patterns and such.
My early life began with my dad in the military. There was a time where we lived in Maryland, I think I was like two or three, and the doctors has been working on some kind of diagnosis for me, but my dad was re-stationed in California before anything became official. I guess at this time, it was the parents who kept the medical records instead of the doctors, and my dad had only one copy of whatever diagnosis was being worked on for me and he gave it to the school and they 'lost' it.
My developmental years were like any other person on the autistic spectrum. Slow to talk, walk, run, ride a bicycle, I didn't even get my license until I was like 21, and I'm still not always comfortable driving, though I have never been in any major accidents, I have had several fender benders, I just get distracted at the wrong moment. I have actually developed a fear that I will get distracted at the wrong time and hit somebody with my car and kill them, and I value life a lot.
Throughout my education years, I attended normal classes. From the time I was in either Kindergarten or first grade until the second half of my sixth grade year, I had been put into a speech therapy class for my lazy r's, and I also has a stuttering problem, I have since overcome these, but occasionally they still creep up. And the only reason I no longer went was because I went two years to a private Christian school, and by the time I came back to middle school, they said that I no longer needed speech therapy.
Also, in fourth and sixth grade, I was put into a couple of special reading classes, though I never could understand why, especially my sixth grade year, as I was being given easy words to spell like dog and cat, and I had always been a really good speller.
I didn't start struggling until my last two years of high school, I was given tests but they didn't show anything. And then in college, at first they went by what the high school had tested, but eventually I was retested and showed signs of dyslexia, the problem with this was that everyone in my family had some form of dyslexia, my dad, mom, brother and sisters, but I didn't know any better and thought nothing of it.
My college years were a struggle, part of it could have been my un-diagnosed autism, but I also didn't have any real idea of what I had wanted to do with my life, which could have also been part of my delayed processing.
In 2005, I got my first job, a security guard working for the same company as my dad and brother, and because they were already working there, they pretty much gave me the job. But, even here I still struggled, I had a hard time approaching people. My next two jobs were also security jobs, with the same problem.
Then I got a job at a place called StarCrest, it was sort of like Avon, but they had multiple magazines under different names. I worked in the data entry position, because I liked using computers. And I struggled here, I had a hard time getting to work on time, I would spend too much time out sick, and I don't think my typing skills ever really improved. Then I started working for the school as a substitute para-educator (another job I had gotten into because of family members, this time it was my dad and older sister), which is also called a para-professional in other states. I think I did fine when I was given an office job. But I struggled working with the students, for the same reason as the security jobs, I had a hard time approaching them.
Like most autistic, I have my repetitive motion, for me it was folding paper, which at first I didn't know was even called origami, but even now I refuse to call my paper craft origami, because I have developed my own patterns and such.
