Visiting an autism conference and a Dutch meetup

Tony Attwood conference 

Central Auditary Processing Disorder

I love people. They are fascinating but extremely complex. To learn how the brain works you learn a lot when things go wrong. I was therefore very grateful when a lovely friend offered me a free ticket to a Tony Attwood conference about autism.

Unfortunately I had to work in the afternoon so I missed half of it. I am also interested because the learning disabilities which run in my family are often also seen in autism. I suffer for example from Auditory Processing Disorder and dyspraxia. Therefore I learned a lot about neurology and got hooked.

Tony Attwood is a good speaker and very entertaining. It was interesting to hear that 1 in 150 people suffer from Asperger syndrome and in the University population this is 1 in 30 people, with the highest numbers in the chemistry, math and computer science department. Engineering is also well populated with aspies.
Although it brings many challenges I think Asperger is a normal variant in the range of people with their strength and weaknesses. Aspies are usually visual and have eye for detail which is an advantage in e.g. engineering. It comes however with weak social skills. Severe autism is certainly a disorder and is very disabling.

Meet and Greet

On Sunday we went to "meet and Greet" where Dutch emigrants came together and shared

their experiences. Most of them came here quite recently. I like to talk Dutch. I never felt more Dutch than when I came to live in New Zealand, because you realise that much of your personality is built by your culture. I recognised some of the issues I had to deal with as well and still do. I also realise that with a Dutch attitude you achieve much more in life, but the downside is that it sometimes borders on "ADHD-like" behaviours; doing a lot, quickly although more organised and perfectionistic. Living here for 10 years now I learned to appreciate to slow down and taking time for reflection, relaxation and simply enjoying the basic things in live. NZ

is speeding up as well however so they might loose the ability to live more consciously. But for

us it was good to find a balance and to choose the best out of two cultures.

Davy didn't come with us. He was 3 when we came here and doesn't speak Dutch although he understands it perfectly. He is half a kiwi. My daughter came along but it is very difficult for her to speak Dutch and the talking was going too fast for her. She is also very shy so this wasn't the best place for her. She spent her time texting her friends, one of her favourite pastimes. Next

week we join the Dutch walking club and in September there is a Dutch theater were we again can get in touch with our Dutch rotes. It is usually a comedy which I really enjoy.

Have fun and enjoy today, marja