Posted by Elaine Gallant

In Reply to: Shankar has great difficulty comprehending sentences, written or oral. His mathematical skills are great. posted by Shivadaasa Sharma

I'm going to agree with Elaine Austin, and throw my hat into the ring with
the opinion that Shankar has some form of autism.
The autisic sometime have that ability to be very good at math. He could be
autistic and it would not necessarily show on a brain scan or other exam.
Last I heard, certain important parts of the brains of autisics were
undeveloped, but this difference can be viewed only from an autopsy.
"Pervasive Developmental Disorder" sounds like an evasive catch all phrase
to mean that they don't have a clue as to what could be wrong with your
child.
Your other problem is that you and your wife are both very intelligent and
highly educated. This would be a bad situation for a low achieving family,
but for a family like yours, it's a disaster.
This has to do with the tremendous gap between your mental abilities and
his. I recommend that you both check into grief counselling about this
issue. You're going to have a lot of adjusting to do. Your son represents a
dream of achievment that will never materialize. Emotionally, it is similar
to a death. It's the death of hope.
This reminds me of the a story that happened to the great operatic singer,
Beverly Sills. Her daughter failed to develop language skill on time. Upon
examination, it turned out that the child was deaf.
Now, the future for a deaf child can be very bright. To be found to be deaf
isn't the end of the world. Yet to Sills, this was a terrible terrible
tragedy. She would never be able to share her music with her daughter.
In any case, best of luck getting your son diagnosed. It sounds like you
have a lot of work to do on many fronts. Please check into finding someone
who can help you sort out the pieces.

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