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The Movie Moment

PROLOGUE

MOUNT MAGAZINE STATE PARK WAS an easy three-hour drive, so when my friend Lynn and her family invited me to join them for the evening in the hilltop cabin they’d rented, I jumped at the chance. They were lined up to greet me as I pulled up to their cabin in my dusty Subaru. Lynn and Will, relaxed and smiling, were happy to be on vacation with their two teenagers in such a beautiful location. Lily, laughing and talkative, was excited about starting college in the fall. And Tom, Lily’s younger brother, was standing off to one side, looking away.

“Tom,” Lynn prompted, “Tom, say hello to Sandy.”

Ducking his head, Tom looked out from beneath his baseball cap. “Helloooooooo,” he said with an odd, singsongy voice, then quickly turned away.

“Good to see you, Tom,” I replied. If you didn’t know Tom, you might think he was being rude. But I was well aware of Tom’s “oddball habits,” as he called them, which were most noticeable when he interacted with other people.

Later, as we hiked to the top of Mount Magazine and savored the incredible view of the river valley below, I thought of some of the conversations that Lynn and I had had over the years about Tom. When Tom was three, a preschool teacher had recommended that he be screened for vague “developmental delays.” She wrote, “Tom doesn’t interact with the other children.” Sometimes, she said, he was “unresponsive,” and seemed “lost in his own world.” But Lynn and Will thought Tom was just shy.

Tom was unusual in other ways, too. He was smart—very smart. At the age of four, Tom had the reading and writing abilities of a child twice his age. Although he seldom talked, when Tom did talk, you couldn’t help but do a double-take in response to his large vocabulary. And like lots of little boys, Tom would become obsessed with a particular topic. On one of my yearly visits, it was volcanoes; on another, construction equipment. But unlike lots of other little boys, Tom had little interest in anything other than his obsessions.

As Tom got older, it became harder to minimize the differences between him and his peers. In middle school, while other kids were joining sports teams and expanding their social circles, Tom’s only friends were online chat room acquaintances. Lynn and Will signed Tom up for scouts, tennis lessons, and other group activities, but Tom would sit on the sidelines.

Tom was in the eighth grade when Will experienced what he later called “the movie moment.” He was reading a magazine article about artists who shared several unusual personality characteristics. An obsessive interest in a single topic or object. High intelligence. Unusual speech patterns. An inability to “read” other people’s emotions or facial expressions. Poor social skills.

“Wow,” Will exclaimed. “This sounds like Tom!”

The article explained that these characteristics reflected a condition called Asperger’s syndrome, named after the Austrian pediatrician who first described it. Considered a mild form of autism, Asperger’s was sometimes called the “geek syndrome” because it seemed to be more common among engineers and computer experts—people who were technologically brilliant but socially inept. Eventually, Tom was evaluated by a pediatric neurologist, who agreed that Tom had Asperger’s. Since Tom’s diagnosis, the term “Asperger’s syndrome” has been eliminated as a formal diagnosis by the psychiatric community. Instead, Asperger’s is now included in the more general diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

When I asked Tom if he would share his experiences for this Prologue, I knew that conversations with him could be difficult. Tom often doesn’t pick up on the verbal and nonverbal “signals” that most people use to regulate their interactions with others. So Tom and I agreed that I would interview him using instant messaging.

It’s hard for Tom to be tactful because he has trouble interpreting other people’s emotional state. He doesn’t intend to be rude; he is simply being honest. For example, consider this exchange:

Tom’s intellectual gifts have helped him compensate for his social deficits. By the end of his freshman year of high school, Tom ranked first in his class of over 800 students. He also scored so highly on the SAT that he was admitted to a special school for gifted students.

Although some of his fellow students envy his intellectual abilities, Tom is well aware of the special challenges he faces. For example, Tom can get “stuck” on a math problem or writing assignment, reworking it endlessly and unable to complete his homework because it doesn’t meet his own standards for perfection.

We’ll come back to Tom’s story as we discuss the different mental abilities involved in thinking, language, and intelligence. We’ll also provide more information about autism and autism spectrum disorder. As you’ll see, there is more to “intelligence” than just academic ability.

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