Your Child’s Disorder May Be Yours, Too

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BY age 2 it was clear that the boy had a sensibility all his own, affectionate and distant at the same time, often more focused on patterns and objects than the people around him.

He was neither naturally social like his mother, nor an early and gifted reader like his father. Quirky, curious, exuberant, he would leap up and dance across the floor after solving a problem or winning a game, duck walking like an N.F.L. receiver posing for a highlight film.

Yet after Phil and Susan Schwarz received a diagnosis for their son, Jeremy, of high functioning autism, they began to think carefully about their own behaviors and histories.

Mr. Schwarz, a software developer in Framingham, Mass., found in his son’s diagnosis a new language to understand his own life. His sensitivities when growing up to loud noises and bright light, his own diffidence through school, his parents’ and grandparents’ special intellectual skills — all echoed through his and Jeremy’s behavior, like some ancient rhythm.

His son’s diagnosis, Mr. Schwarz said, “provided a frame in which a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated aspects of my own life growing up fit together for the first time.”

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/2 ... 002/NEWS04

In many books written about Autism and Asperger's Syndrome, it is believed to be genetically inherited from the "father" of the child.

All I know is that I was diagnosed with HFA when I was 4.5 and my father is about as aspie as they come.

Neither of my parents are aspies, but my grandmother (on my father's side of the family) is probably an aspie.

We have 2 of our 3 sons diagnosed with Asperger's.

My husband is Aspie, though he denies it. But he fits all the criteria - he hates socialising, literal interpretation of langugae, obsessed with his stamp collection, routine obsessed, hates crowds, hates loud noise etc etc etc

Helen

This is precisely what happened to me! I don't know about it being strictly paternal though in terms of genetics...

My father has a lot of aspie traits, though I don't know if he's aspie or just a bit of a pessimistic perfectionist!! My maternal grandfather definitely was though. So it's there on both sides for me, to some degree.

My dad = strong aspie traits, mom = moderate aspie traits, but, my maternal grandparents had more aspie traits than my paternal grandparents, and there are a number of engineers on my mother's mother's side of the family.

That makes sense to me, as my father was almost certainly an Aspie.

I've figured AS was genetic for a while now. Comes as no surprise. to me.

I find this interesting, because I swear my father was aspie. It was hard to tell b'cause he was a die hard alcoholic from the age of 16, so his behaviours were strange from either aspie or alcohol. And I swear his dad was strange, I was young when he died, so I'm only going on memory. And if this is true, then good for my kids, although I think my son is one.

This is no surprise to me.

I have Aspergers but the way my mom & my older sister act, there is a possibility both could have either HFA or full-on Aspergers.

Both of my parents seem likes aspies. In some ways, they're more aspie-like than I am.

Aspergers comes down the mothers line as well - my son is diagnosed - When he was a child I could see he was like my dad and brothers - aspergers shows up differently in women.

Autism spectrum disorder definitely runs in my mom's side of the family. I have an aunt with Medium-Functioning Autism and my mom strongly suspects that one of my great-aunts, a retired accountant who is quite intelligent and a bit eccentric, has Asperger's Syndrome.

Why only the father? That does not seem to make sense to me, given the presence of females with AS.