Learning to live and work with Asperger's syndrome

By Fran Metcalf - February 15, 2009 11:00pm

ANDREW Koschmann sets his alarm for 5.28am each day.

Not 5.30am or even 5.25am. It has to be 5.28am exactly or his whole day is out of sync.

If he wants to get to work at SuperCheap Auto's Lawnton distribution centre at 7.30am, he needs an exact amount of time to get through his morning routine.

There's the water with lemon or lime he needs to drink and the corn, oats, nuts, seeds and buckwheat he has to crush, blend and soak.

Then there's the exercise routine, eating the breakfast and getting dressed before he can head off to the office.

Koschmann was hired by SuperCheap Auto about seven years ago and has moved steadily up the ranks to his present position of national quality assurance co-ordinator.

It's the best job he's had, largely because he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome shortly before joining the company.

"I was 45 years old when I was diagnosed and, for me, it wasn't a crutch but a foundation from which I could move forward," he says.

"I knew I was different all my life, that there was something wrong with me but I now know why I'm different so the pain and stress of that is no longer there."

Up until then, his childhood and working life had been blotted by bullying and social isolation which is common among those with AS.

Asperger's syndrome

Asperger's syndrome is an autistic spectrum disorder characterised by poor social skills, lack of empathy and clumsiness as well as a capacity for phenomenal intellectual ability in restricted or particular areas.

Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were believed to have Asperger's syndrome, although long before Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger identified it in the 1940s.

Brilliant minds like Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg have also been reported as having Asperger's which was showcased on SBS music show RocKwiz last year when visually impaired Sydney-sider Mark Boerebach wowed audiences with his ability to name the top five songs on Australian music charts on any date from 1979 to 1992.

Despite the success of a few, the reality is that many people with Asperger's don't lead successful lives because they can't find employment despite their ability, talent and qualifications, says Professor Tony Attwood.

"They have difficulty selling their personality in an interview," says Attwood, who diagnoses and treats people with Asperger's syndrome and autism at his Brisbane clinics, Minds and Hearts.

"They lack eye contact, don't read the signals that might be telling them to stop talking or to talk more and they're not able to build a rapport with the person interviewing them.

"They often require someone to give them guidance on what they wear and their language can be pedantic, either talking too little or too much."

Koschmann had to learn to read social cues at a specialist clinic.

"With greetings, if someone said to me 'how are you?' I would tell them for five minutes exactly how I am," he says.

"I was too close with personal space and I also didn't have any eye contact."

It's these kinds of skills that Attwood teaches people at his Petrie and West End clinics in the hope of helping them understand their social world and find employment.

Information program

With International Asperger Day on February 18, Asperger Services Australia and Attwood have co-ordinated a corporate lunch on Februay 20 at Tattersall's Club and a seminar on February 21 at the Holiday Inn to educate the city's corporate sector about AS.

Attwood is urging more employers to overlook the quirky social behaviour and focus on the hard-working, dedicated employee beneath.

"These guys have a single-minded focus at work," Attwood says.

"They go to work to do the job rather than socialise and chat people up.

"They are not interested in the new secretary's legs."

Koschmann's boss, Brendan Walsh, remembers his first impression of "Koschy" when they first met.

"He was quirky – his attention to detail was unique," Walsh says. "I mean, people who work in distribution warehouses are usually a bit rough and tough but he was completely different."

Nevertheless, Walsh says Koschmann has become a vital member of his 140-person team and is able to work effectively with staff as well as liaise with senior managers.

The reality is, Attwood says, there'll be more and more people with AS in the community.

"The number of people with autism has nearly tripled over the past decade (but) Asperger's only started to be diagnosed about 15 years ago," Attwood says.

"We know one in 250 people has Asperger's right now. We don't know if it's increasing but we know there's hundreds of thousands of adults with Asperger's in Australia who have not been diagnosed."

Source: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...-23272,00.html

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