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OAKVILLE BEAVER Saturday, April 18, 2009 · 8 Asperger's teen speaks out By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF It isn't easy being 15. There's immense pressure to act and look a certain way, and more importantly to fit in, especially within the confines of high school. Cory Morrison says he has a hard time feeling like an average teenager. The Oakville boy has Asperger's Syndrome. The developmental disorder affects each person differently, but those who have it usually have some degree of impairment in language and communication skills, as well as repetitive or restrictive patterns of thought and behavior. Cory is adamant that it is a disorder, and not a disability. "Disability means you can't do stuff, so I consider it a disorder because I can clearly do stuff," he said. "It is like a milder form of autism where I can clearly do things, but I just have difficulty with them. I can do anything if I wanted to, like become a professional swimmer, golfer or basketball player. I would just have difficulty doing it. Disability means you can't do it at all, and clearly, I can do everything." Cory says that many kids at his school, White Oaks Secondary School, recognize he's different, but they don't know he has Asperger's Syndrome. The teenager says he is regularly verbally bullied by students, many of whom talk behind his back and call him names. "I get bullied about once a month," he said. "Sometimes, I hear people gossiping about me and there are so many people at school who say `retard' and things like that. The teenagers at my school take racism and culture so seriously, but when it comes to disabilities, they say, `Ha, ha.'" Cory's mom, Nancy, said the staff at White Oaks Secondary School have been quick to act when she reports her son has been bullied. But Cory said he wishes it wouldn't happen at all. Cory's condition has made it hard for him to make friends, as people with Asperger's Syndrome often have difficulty with social skills. He has finally started to form a small group of friends in his class at school. "Kids don't talk to me, so they don't know what my needs and wants are," he said. "They think I'm not a good person, even though they clearly don't know who I am. They know my name is Cory Morrison, they know I'm in their class, but they don't know much about me. People need to understand someone before they decide to hate them." People with Asperger's Syndrome have idiosyncratic interests. For Cory, one of these interests is the weather. He also has an exceptional long-term memory. His short-term memory, however, is "Sometimes I hear people gossiping about me and there are so many people at school who say `retard' and things like that. The teenagers at my school take racism and culture so seriously, but when it comes to disabilities, they say, `Ha, ha.'" Cory Morrison, 15-year-old White Oaks Secondary School student with Asperger's Syndrome RIZIERO VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVER BROTHERLY LOVE: Cory Morrison, 15, and his little brother Curtis, 13, relax at home after playing a game of basketball in their driveway. poor. This leads to difficulty with exams in school. "I highly doubt I can remember what you said three minutes ago," he said during the interview. "My short-term memory is really bad." However, Cory is exceptional in other areas, such as music. He has perfect pitch, which means that he can identify any note he hears. Cory took up the piano six years ago and has proven to have a natural ability on the instrument. "I like to play simple stuff or popular music," he said, taking a break from the interview to demonstrate his talent with a polished performance John Lennon's Imagine. The social and concentration skills that are often lacking in those with Asperger's Syndrome means Cory has trouble with team sports. He prefers individual sports, such as skiing, swimming, golfing and riding his bike. "Team sports, I hate them, and gym," he said. "The kids constantly push you around." There are many people in Cory's life who celebrate his beautiful personality and anticipate his bright future, such as his mom Nancy, dad John and little brother Curtis, who does not have any developmental disorders. "He's cool," said Curtis, 13, who is in Grade 7. "People say he has Asperger's, high-functioning autism or he's a retard, and no, that's not right. He can do things that people without Asperger's/high-functioning autism can't even do. He can play the piano and I can't do that." Cory was diagnosed with autism, a more severe developmental disorder, at age three. "I knew at age three that something was up because he had developed some language, but it was very limited. He did have a lot of repetitive play and he didn't seem to be terribly connected to anyone except for me," Nancy said. "If you called his name, he didn't look and he did the hand flap. But he was my first child and we had never been exposed to autism, so we originally thought it was his personality." However, they also recognized that he was gifted in other areas. "He was really good with numbers and letters," said John. "He could spell things out. We thought he had something else." The diagnosis was initially devastating for Nancy, but she said she refused to dwell on it. "At first I thought, `No, he doesn't (have autism),'" said Nancy. "Then I started reading about it and said, `Yes, he does.' There was a short mourning period because you've lost what you thought would be a normal child, but we're not real big on that kind of thing. We really delved into how we could fix it because the doctors then weren't optimistic about anything. They said he was probably going to go into an institution and that he may never speak." John said from the moment of the diagnosis, the family grew stronger. "We're fighters, so we moved forward," he said. Nancy agrees the family became more close-knit through the experience. "In a lot of ways, it makes a family closer," she said. "A lot of families end up in divorce, but we did the opposite, where there's a weaker person and you band together to help them out." Nancy found help through Community Living Oakville, where she was able to connect with other mothers who had autistic children. These mothers were using a behaviour-based treatment called Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), which is an intensive, repetitive, one-on-one teaching method designed to actively engage children who commonly have communication, socialization, learning and behavioural problems. "I had done a lot of research on different treatments for autism," Nancy said. "The ABA was the only one that had any statistics that showed it would work. There was a group of about four moms who were running programs in Oakville and they became a support group." The family paid out of its own pocket for an ABA program for three years, with Cory making substantial progress despite his late start at age four. Most children start ABA at age two. The ABA program was expensive, but money well spent, Nancy said. "We did it on our own money and the most expensive year was $22,000," she said. Nancy said she also did everything she could outside of ABA to help her son progress, such as labelling every piece of furniture in the house. See Parents page 9