Discovering and channeling unusual skills for college

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avid_mama
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06 Jan 2017, 2:37 am

First some background... My son is nearly 17 and we are starting to discuss the possibility of him attending college. I think he might[i] be able to attend a small four-year university with a support program in place[/i], but an online program or junior college is more likely. I am not ruling out a trade school or specialized school for kids on the spectrum either. He has a decent GPA and is completing mainstreamed coursework with a social skills support class and a collaborative structure in his least favorite subjects (English and History have 2 teachers-- reg ed and a spec ed teacher working together--pretty cool!) He's not sure what he would major in, but he enjoys drawing/illustrating, video game design, math, storytelling, and absolutely anything involving babies. (He has always loved to make kids laugh. He's a gentle and sweet boy.)

He's also pretty obsessed with Pokemon and an app on my phone called DragonVale. He draws 100s of these elaborate anthropomorphic versions of the dragons as people and gives them all stats. Each dragon and Pokemon also make a unique sound or cry. He has memorized all of them... and I mean, ALL of them. I had no idea he could do this. The other day, he told me that he knows all 802 Pokemon and could tell me which was which by its sound without looking, so we tested it to see if it was true. He accurately named more than 50 in a row when I played the sound on the computer, then he got bored. I don't know how many dragons there are, but he knows their sounds, as well. He seems to have an unlimited capacity to memorize auditory information he's interested in. (This is like memorizing 800+ distinct bird songs!) I was blown away... but this only relates to information he WANTS to know. He doesn't give a crap about history dates and he used to play trumpet but sings off key, so he doesn't show signs of being a musical savant or anything.

If he is really interested in something, he can memorize it word for word. He once retold me the entire plotline of a movie he watched in Spanish class because it was about Day of the Dead, which fascinated him. Over the course of two or three days, he told me EVERYTHING that happened in the movie, almost word for word, and wasn't satisfied until he got the whole story out. 8O

How can he harness this skill and use it for a job? Anybody have suggestions for how to maximize our kiddos strengths and channel that toward a paying career? Has anyone else observed this type of amazing memory skill? Any college advice?



eikonabridge
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07 Jan 2017, 9:56 am

avid_mama wrote:
He's not sure what he would major in, but he enjoys drawing/illustrating, video game design, math, storytelling, and absolutely anything involving babies. (He has always loved to make kids laugh. He's a gentle and sweet boy.)

...The other day, he told me that he knows all 802 Pokemon and could tell me which was which by its sound without looking, ...he used to play trumpet but sings off key, so he doesn't show signs of being a musical savant or anything.

How can he harness this skill and use it for a job? Anybody have suggestions for how to maximize our kiddos strengths and channel that toward a paying career? Has anyone else observed this type of amazing memory skill? Any college advice?

Well, your son basically matches with every other person I've known in the science and technology fields.

It's always good to have passions and hobbies about something. E.g. here are the passions of some of my friends:
- one guy was into comic books, he collected all issues of Teen Age Mutant Turtles
- another guy was good at sketching drawings, and playing tetris
- another guy did some painting
- one guy was an expert car mechanic
- a roommate of mine was into photography
- some are into music, including rock band performance
- myself was into languages and linguistics (Nostratic, if you've heard about it)

But, every single one above makes a living by doing something else, doing either science or technology, solving problems. There is a difference between career and hobby. Your son's profile matches well with people in the technical fields. I would suggest your son take up courses in typical engineering fields, and see what he likes.

As for memory skills, I had a friend during my engineering school days, and he remembered everyone's telephone number by heart, after being told only once. I've never met another person quite like that. This guy was also good in hardware/circuit design. He also wrote computer programs directly in hexadecimals, and calculated all the jump statement offsets in his head. I still remember a 3-person team project we did together. We had a bug, and myself and the third guy were racking our heads on how to change the assembler program to fix it and reburn the EEPROM chip, but my friend took at look at the circuit and told us: "guys, no need to reprogram the EEPROM, we just need to hook up this wire here and add another connection here." He solved a software program by making hardware changes. It's always good to be around people that can see things that other people cannot see, and solve problems that other people cannot solve.

Good news is we are at the doorstep of VR/AR (virtual reality / augmented reality). There will be a large demand for skills in the 3D design and programming. That's the most basic career your son could pursue.

Gaming is fine, too. Toby Fox released his "Undertale" game in 2015. It was an instant hit, and it was largely a one-man effort, including the graphic art, software programming, and all the tunes in the music soundtrack. I myself have worked in the children game industry, and released some of the bestseller titles. The other day I was surprised to find that one of the games (originally named Jumpstart Toddler) was still running on all the computers in the children section of all our local libraries, 16 years after its release. But keep in mind that technology has changed quite a lot. It's a field where you have to constantly update yourself.

And the next level up is actual engineering work. Things like network engineers, software engineers, etc.

And the next level up is an advanced degree.

But, I can tell you some fairly common, good steps for your son. These are things widely shared in today's technical fields.

(1) Learn about Python programming
(2) Develop skills in Raspberry Pi
(3) Take some free MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course)
(4) Familiarize with Microsoft Office suite, particularly Excel (charts, pivot tables, macros) and Power BI

And to poke his intellectual curiosity, ask him to find out why

1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + ... = - 1
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = - 1/12

(Ha ha, not a joke. You add up a whole bunch of positive integer numbers, and the result not only can be negative, but it can even be non-integer. It's important for him to realize that common wisdom can be wrong...and that the world is bigger than our imagination. Learn to find truths by using creativity.)

Ask him to learn about p-adic numbers, too. Ask him to watch YouTube videos and learn why 5-th degree polynomials don't have generic solutions by radicals. All these things are good exercises for the young mind to mature.

Technical fields are fun. Geeks are not looked down anymore. They are highly respected out there.


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somanyspoons
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07 Jan 2017, 5:07 pm

A couple of thoughts.

Autistic folks tend to take a few more years to figure out being an adult. So, don't be surprised if he does too. That's not a failure. That's a different developmental time line.

People like me, and it sounds like your son is similar, have very narrow places where we succeed. I was really hampered for a while because I followed my parents' path. They were both teachers and I followed them because that's all I knew. But I cannot be a good teacher with my ability/deficiency profile. I needed to find my own path. (I'm a chiropractor now.)

Your son is going to have to go out into the world and figure out what he wants to do. Of course, you are right that those skills are very valuable. But there's a lot of ways they could be. Everything from a sound engineer to a mechanic uses skills like you've described.

Remember that most kids go into their first year of college having no idea what they want to do with there lives. Of those who do know what they want to major in, many of them switch. It's OK. It's not even autism specific. It's just the age.



avid_mama
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08 Jan 2017, 1:22 am

Thank you both for your replies. They were extremely helpful. Your reminder about virtual reality being on the horizon was something I hadn't really thought about. I also needed the reminder to be patient to let him explore his options. I don't want to suggest a major in, say, math and he ends up resenting me for it and hates it. I am trying to look into a program called Exceptional Minds in the L.A. area. It sounds like something right up his alley with people who would make the effort to understand him.

The hardest part is my son wants a job right now, and I think it would be good for him to have one to learn skills, but I am nervous that employers won't understand him and his quirks and he ends up getting fired or yelled at. :( He so wants to do well and that would crush him.



somanyspoons
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08 Jan 2017, 10:34 am

A job sounds like a great idea!! ! Why hold him back from that? There is no failing your first job. There is only discovering what doesn't work. He HAS to fail in life. This is an absolute. Those who don't fail, never expand their horizons.

Let him do this! Tell him you are proud of him no matter what, because he is brave enough to try. This is a really healthy trait.

Scan through this parent section and you'll find a dozen parents bemoaning that they can't get their kid to even try anything new. They would love to have a bit of your kid's willingness.

Also, I think you instincts to not pick his major are right on. So good job with that. He should pick his major. And he may change that decision a couple of times, if he's like most college age kids.



feral botanist
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08 Jan 2017, 10:58 am

I have been fired from more than a few jobs, but in my current profession, I do well.

I had to try college once and fail, then go work for a few years and then go back when I was 29. It took me awhile to learn many of the needed skills, both academic and social. I still struggle with the social skills, but I do ok.

My interest and profession coincide, so I am lucky.



lovebat
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08 Jan 2017, 5:33 pm

I'm not sure what grade your son is in currently, but I would highly recommend he try enrolling in a college course or two while he's still in high school. That's what I did a few years back while attending high school in the LA area. The public high schools weren't all that great, but the California community colleges are outstanding. Starting at the local community college (Glendale Community, in my case) by only taking one or two courses at first gave me a chance to slowly adjust and acclimate. For an aspie like myself, it was not an easy transition, but it helped that community college classes are smaller and the professors more accessible than in 100-level courses at a large university. Notably, community colleges are also more generous than universities in allowing students to withdraw from courses in which they're struggling, without incurring a penalties against their GPA.

After high school graduation, I made the mistake of leaving home to attend a huge, prestigious university out of state; I struggled socially, suffered a severe bout of depression, and returned home after only one year away. I re-enrolled at GCC, finished out my two-year transfer degree, and transferred to a local Cal State, where I am quite happy.

As for your son's desire for work right now, I would try to get his feet wet with volunteer work first, if you're concerned he might struggle in a traditional job. It's not as though the employment opportunities for a 17-year-old with social difficulties are going to be so lucrative in the near-term, anyway, and he'll likely be shown much more appreciation and respect in a non-profit setting than if he were, say, taking tickets at the local cinema.

Your son sounds like a heck of a neat kid. From the way you affectionately describe him and his quirks, it's clear that he's blessed with an exceptionally loving, understanding mother; that constant in his life means that even when he struggles with work or school, he will have the support he needs to bounce back and move forward until he finds that niche in which he excels. :)



feral botanist
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08 Jan 2017, 5:43 pm

I would second the Community College idea.

I did my first two years at a community college and I found that the professors were on average better educators than at a university.