The Spark: Genius and Autism
As a writer of memoirs and historical fiction, I’m passionate about people’s stories. Although I don’t care that much about rich and powerful people, I care a great deal about the so-called “little people.” I could go on about that patronizing term for the folks who allow our leaders to succeed through their labor and cooperation, but I’ll save it for another time.
When I ran across Kristine Barnett‘s book entitled The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius and Autism, I thought this might be my kind of book.
Kristine’s story begins with a teacher who tells her that her three-year-old son will never read—”a devastating moment,” she writes. She’s already spent a year watching her baby’s abilities disappear, but she couldn’t prepare herself for such a diagnosis. Then she writes, “For a parent, it’s terrifying to fly against the advice of the professionals.”
How well I know that feeling. I have two sons with learning disabilities that I understood long before I could get anyone to listen to me. The trouble was, I didn’t know what to do about it. Kristine did.
This book resonated from start to finish. How I wish she’d published it back in the 1970s when the first of my very bright sons entered kindergarten. I was taken by Kristine’s flashbacks to moments leading up to Jake’s birth and diagnosis, but for me the meat came when she decided to go against the professionals and follow her own instincts—allow her son his passions. After watching excruciating hours of forcing her son to do therapeutic activities, she decided to forego reinforcing those therapies at home like the pros advised and let him do the things he was passionate about.
One of those things, a hallmark of autism, is spinning. He would spin objects, other kids if they would cooperate, even himself. The experts call it self-stimulation (maybe like a bored horse cribbing), but it turned out that Jake was modeling the solar system. I use that story only as an example of things non-verbal people do that the rest of us “normal” people don’t understand. Kristine didn’t understand at the time, either, but she gave her son time to do what he wanted to do.
I can’t share here all the wisdom Kristine has to impart—not only about kids whose brains work a little differently than the average, but about all the rest of them too. I was out of my depth with my kids and they suffered for it. Ms. Barnett was not. You can follow her on Facebook, and I recommend The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius and Autism to anyone who has children in their lives. If your local bookstore doesn’t have it, ask them to order it. You will want to keep a hard copy for reference.
