Podcast:
Autism Superpwer

00:00:00.080 For other parents out there that have
00:00:03.600 been told
00:00:05.359 your child has autism, you have so many
00:00:08.160 questions.
00:00:09.920 And you know, Jack, I’d love to hear
00:00:13.280 from you your journey from not speaking
00:00:17.920 to speaking. I think you told me a story
00:00:20.000 once. You remember not speaking?
00:00:21.840 >> I do.
00:00:22.640 >> And so you didn’t even know you couldn’t
00:00:24.240 speak.
00:00:25.680 >> Yeah. Know I Before I get into that, I
00:00:27.519 do want to say one thing. They said that
00:00:29.199 I wouldn’t be in normal classes, right?
00:00:30.880 >> Right.
00:00:31.439 >> They were right. I took honors classes.
00:00:37.440 >> Can you state that question again one
00:00:38.960 more time?
00:00:39.680 >> So, what was it like? You told me a
00:00:42.640 story that, you know, for parents that
00:00:45.840 have non-verbal autistic kids, you
00:00:48.559 wonder if they even know that they’re
00:00:50.879 not talking. What was it like for you?
00:00:53.120 You said you remember being cuz we got
00:00:54.640 you in. You were diagnosed at three
00:00:57.039 >> and we got you into intervention school
00:01:00.320 like a special education at the age of
00:01:02.879 three.
00:01:03.760 >> You told me, "Mom, I was fine. I didn’t
00:01:06.479 even know I wasn’t talking."
00:01:08.159 >> I didn’t know. I had conversations with
00:01:10.479 all the people that I knew in my
00:01:12.880 preschool. I didn’t know that there was
00:01:15.600 anything different for me versus anyone
00:01:17.520 else. So, you were actually talking to
00:01:20.479 them out loud and having full-on
00:01:22.799 conversations. You were just imagining
00:01:24.960 conversations that you were having.
00:01:26.400 >> No, I I literally remember certain
00:01:28.720 conversations to this day. I remember
00:01:30.400 there was uh
00:01:31.680 >> But this was in your head, right?
00:01:33.520 >> Yeah. It it I don’t that’s what I’ve
00:01:36.320 said in the past and so I’m going to go
00:01:38.159 off of that. I don’t remember it all too
00:01:40.880 well, but I do remember there was a
00:01:44.720 picture day and it was uh it was the
00:01:47.680 preschool, right? Yeah, it was picture
00:01:49.280 day
00:01:50.399 >> and I remember I was in the line for
00:01:54.320 pictures out in the hallway and I was
00:01:56.159 talking with a new student named Gloria
00:01:58.960 and I remember having that conversation.
00:02:01.200 I mean, some kind of conversation, but I
00:02:03.040 remember her name. I remember, you know,
00:02:05.600 it not being any different than me
00:02:07.040 talking with you right now.
00:02:08.878 But it wasn’t out loud.
00:02:10.239 >> Yeah.
00:02:10.720 >> It was not verbal.
00:02:11.840 >> You told me, which was so fun. You said,
00:02:14.720 "Mom, I preferred my voice in my head
00:02:17.680 than my actual voice. When it started
00:02:19.840 coming out,
00:02:21.200 >> you didn’t like it as much."
00:02:22.640 >> Mhm. And I And I stand by that. I I I
00:02:25.599 again, I don’t remember it now, but I’ll
00:02:27.840 stand by the statements I’ve said
00:02:29.440 before. Yeah.
00:02:31.040 >> And so you worked your butt off.
00:02:33.760 >> I did. I did. You worked your butt off
00:02:36.080 during school and nothing was gonna stop
00:02:40.319 you.
00:02:41.599 >> Yeah. I refuse to be a victim. I refuse
00:02:44.000 to let anyone tell me what I can and
00:02:45.920 can’t do. I will do what I want and I’ll
00:02:48.959 find a way to do it.
00:02:50.480 >> And so if that’s taking a test two,
00:02:52.560 three times,
00:02:54.160 >> I’ll do it.
00:02:55.599 >> Yeah. So through this journey, you found
00:03:00.160 that kids weren’t too nice to you. Mhm.
00:03:04.000 >> And do you want to go into detail uh
00:03:06.720 with that? So maybe kids that aren’t
00:03:09.120 autistic understand the depth of maybe
00:03:11.920 saying a simple
00:03:14.159 >> rude word or two to someone,
00:03:16.720 >> you know, especially and I know they
00:03:18.560 don’t like to call it this high
00:03:19.840 functioning. You know, there’s all these
00:03:21.440 terms that are changing.
00:03:23.680 >> Kids think, "Oh, hey, he doesn’t have
00:03:25.599 autism." Mhm.
00:03:27.040 >> But tell it tell people what it’s like
00:03:29.360 having autism in that sense of what they
00:03:32.480 call high functioning, which I know,
00:03:34.319 don’t get on me. They don’t call it
00:03:36.319 that. I know a lot of people don’t call
00:03:37.680 it that anymore, but I think that’s
00:03:41.200 tricky to talk about. I would say that I
00:03:44.400 was definitely bullied. I’m having a
00:03:46.319 hard time remembering exa like all the
00:03:48.239 details about ex what exactly. But you
00:03:51.280 know I’d say that being someone who is
00:03:53.920 high functioning is sometimes difficult
00:03:56.799 because people just think you’re weird.
00:03:58.480 And I think you know with special
00:04:00.159 interest all of us autistic people have
00:04:02.080 special interests. It’s just just how we
00:04:04.560 are. And I think our special interests
00:04:07.680 can isolate us which is not fun. You
00:04:10.720 know, it can put you in a situation
00:04:12.080 where you don’t know how to read social
00:04:13.760 cues to start off with,
00:04:15.280 >> right?
00:04:15.680 >> And you know, I didn’t know I didn’t
00:04:17.440 understand sarcasm until I was in the
00:04:19.759 eighth grade.
00:04:20.238 >> Yeah. I remember that was a difficult
00:04:21.600 thing for you. You’d come home and tell
00:04:23.280 stories about uh what kids would say to
00:04:25.600 you and we’d have to explain to you or a
00:04:28.000 teacher.
00:04:29.120 >> You had teachers that were were horribly
00:04:32.560 sarcastic when they really shouldn’t
00:04:34.080 have been. It was difficult for you to
00:04:35.520 to understand that. Eventually I came to
00:04:37.759 understand it but you know it was one of
00:04:39.360 those things where yeah I couldn’t
00:04:41.280 relate with anyone I because I had a
00:04:43.759 special interest in paleontology and
00:04:46.080 then I didn’t understand all the social
00:04:48.320 cues which made things difficult and so
00:04:50.320 I ended up just being by myself a lot of
00:04:52.880 the time and when I did find my groups
00:04:55.120 of people they were often very strange
00:04:58.720 outcast like people and it definitely
00:05:03.040 caused some issues because you know
00:05:05.680 often Not not always, but often these
00:05:08.560 outcasts and hurt people hurt other
00:05:11.120 people.
00:05:12.000 >> Mhm. Oh, definitely. Hurt people hurt
00:05:14.240 people.
00:05:14.800 >> Yeah. Is there anything else you’d like
00:05:17.919 to hear from me with that?
00:05:20.000 >> Sure, Jack. What brought you to loving
00:05:24.160 the Lord as much as you do right now?
00:05:26.160 Was it Would you say it was through that
00:05:29.840 bullying or did you always feel like God
00:05:31.919 was with you? I actually, you know, I
00:05:34.160 wrote about, you know, I wrote about
00:05:35.759 that in my apologetics class the other
00:05:37.759 day. There was a DQ on.
00:05:39.120 >> Would you like to say just real quick,
00:05:40.320 where are you going to college and what
00:05:41.600 are you going for?
00:05:42.479 >> I am going to Liberty University and I
00:05:45.120 am getting my BS in religion with an
00:05:47.360 emphasis on apologetics right now.
00:05:49.360 >> Okay, so you can go back.
00:05:50.400 >> I was literally just writing about that.
00:05:52.479 I ended up really becoming strong with
00:05:55.120 my faith because of apologetics.
00:05:57.280 >> What does that mean for people? They
00:05:58.639 don’t know what that word means.
00:06:00.400 >> Defending the faith. That’s how I got
00:06:02.960 into it. It’s these logical arguments
00:06:04.639 and a lot of people get scared of the
00:06:06.400 fancy, you know, $10 philosophical
00:06:09.280 words. I love them because
00:06:11.440 >> gravitate to them.
00:06:12.240 >> I gravitate towards them because they
00:06:13.919 explain super complicated subject
00:06:16.479 matters in such a simple way, one word.
00:06:19.280 >> There are so many times where mom and I
00:06:22.160 will have to stop you and say, "Jack, we
00:06:25.280 don’t understand what that word. you
00:06:26.800 don’t understand what you just
00:06:30.240 >> but you’re so kind when you’re
00:06:31.440 explaining yourself to people.
00:06:33.600 >> Yeah, I try to be you know I I think you
00:06:35.600 know Christ prayed for unity in his body
00:06:37.759 and so I really do believe in that. I
00:06:40.400 want to see the church unified and not
00:06:42.479 arguing within itself. And I you know I
00:06:44.880 also you know one of the core passages
00:06:46.720 and I I don’t know how many people have
00:06:48.240 core passages in scripture but I
00:06:50.319 definitely have core passages. And
00:06:52.720 >> what do you mean by a core passage? This
00:06:55.199 is a passage you can recall off the top
00:06:57.280 of your head and you use it in your
00:06:58.639 daily life
00:06:59.280 >> that he lives by.
00:07:00.479 >> Gotcha.
00:07:01.199 >> 1 Corinthians 5 is one of those passages
00:07:03.599 for me. We are not to judge those
00:07:05.599 outside the church. We are to judge
00:07:07.039 those in the church. I still want unity
00:07:09.520 in the church. But if you’re outside of
00:07:11.680 the church, I have no business judging
00:07:14.400 you. I have zero business judging you.
00:07:16.639 See, and that’s that’s something that’s
00:07:18.800 huge with non-believers who are outside
00:07:22.639 the church and feel like
00:07:26.400 Christians are constantly judging them.
00:07:29.599 They have a lot of resentment towards
00:07:31.680 that. And and that verse, your core
00:07:34.960 verse really would solve a lot of issues
00:07:37.599 for a lot of people.
00:07:38.400 >> It would solve so many issues.