LEWISBURG — João Pedro Wilshusen stood in the living room of his Lewisburg home and pointed a homemade magic wand toward three people sitting on the couch.
“Expelliarmus!” he yelled, imitating a Harry Potter spell that disarms the opponent, and threw his own wand in the air.
A smile broke underneath his dark-rimmed glasses and laughter erupted from his lips as the 11-year-old grabbed the wand and continued to cast additional spells he learned from the books.
João Pedro has been diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder — a form of autism — and, despite the disability, he enjoys regular everyday activities that his peers take advantage of, too.
His mother, Claudia Wilshusen, said her son, like every other child diagnosed with the disorder, is just like any other kid.
“They’re not odd, they’re not strange, they’re not violent,” she said. “It’s stereotypes, it’s not true. If you want to know about it, just ask.”
Language development
Asperger’s disorder is part of the Autism Spectrum, which also includes Autistic disorder and Pervasive Developmental disorder.
Dr. Scott Myers, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician at Geisinger Medical Center said when looking at the three disorders in the spectrum, about 65 per 10,000 people are affected.
About 33 per 10,000 are diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental disorder, 22 are diagnosed with Autistic disorder and 10 are diagnosed with Aspergers.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, Aspergers differentiates from other autism disorders mainly in the area of language and communication, said Myers.
Different criteria used to evaluate is an area of controversy and may change as it evolves, but language development is a large factor.
“The biggest is early language development,” Myers said. “In autistic (children), the language is delayed in the first three years of life. In Aspergers, early language is preserved.”
Impairment in social interaction also is seen, he added, including difficulty using body language, eye contact, gestures to regulate interaction and things like empathy, ability to see someone else’s perspective and being egocentric.
“Someone with Aspergers may say something rude or abrupt without being mean,” Myers said. “... They don’t realize it is inappropriate because they can’t take the other perspective.”
Something was not right
Wilshusen said she noticed something wasn’t right with João Pedro when he was 18 months old.
The young boy would sit with a magazine or thick book, she said, and just flip the pages over and over for hours at a time if she would let him.
She said despite being a first-time mom, she found the self-stimulation to be strange.
“That was the first pebble from the avalanche,” she said.
João Pedro had extreme sensory sensitiveness — Wilshusen couldn’t laugh, cough or clap her hands without her son having an intense reaction.
“I knew in my guts something was not right,” she said.
Through research, Wilshusen said she had an idea about the disorder her son suffered from, and at 8 years old he was officially diagnosed.
“I’m not an expert,” she said, “I’m just a mother. The only expert I am of is this child.”
A regular kid
A fifth-grade student, João Pedro is very smart, chatty and personable.
“I got a 100 percent on my science test,” he gleamed while showing off his various Harry Potter movies and memorabilia.
João Pedro’s mother said she was astounded one day when he sat in his room and went through every page of all seven of the wizardry books, handwriting each individual spell.
He also plays soccer, sings in the church choir, listens to music and likes to work in the garden.
Myers said treatments for Aspergers are education types of things, such as behavioral interventions and therapies to help build skills and reach maximum potential.
“Things can be taught,” he said. “... You can make good progress. There are people with Aspergers who have become very successful.” Wilshusen said it’s difficult but by parents becoming more involved and informed it helps their children to be successful and independent.
“He has to fight the whole world, everything is harder,” Wilshusen said. “He needs to be well rested, well fed and do his homework like any other child. I tell him to dream, just like any other mother. There’s no limit set, just keep going.”
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