By Sara Quam
Luverne High School senior Audra Novotny is like many students her age, planning a college career and looking forward to independence. But the usual issues of homesickness or financial stress are secondary to the bigger obstacle she faces - Asperger's syndrome.
Diagnosed just more than a year ago, Audra is achieving a lot for someone with the condition.
She is active in Sioux Falls community theater, participates in school and church extracurriculars and holds down a part-time job. For all of this she recently was honored with the Autism Service Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Center for Disabilities through the University of South Dakota School of Medicine.
Although she's not autistic as the award implies, Audra has a higher-functioning form of it called Asperger's syndrome. Some of the typical symptoms are speech and language peculiarities and non-verbal communication problems.
Those are similar to some of Audra's most noticeable problems. "I don't know how to accept a compliment. I can't pick up on body language - if someone's mad or sarcastic. If they're nervous I might think they're sad," Audra said.
Symptoms are different in all cases, but common ones are also talking at length about a favorite subject or repeating words or phrases. People with Asperger's may like routines or rituals and have unusual preoccupations and sometimes exhibit egocentricity.
"I roll my eyes, and it's totally involuntary," Audra said. That small facial expression can often leave other people feeling she's rolling her eyes at what they've said or done and causes further communication problems.
A major roadblock for Audra is the way she learns. "I can't do anything without thinking of it in pictures," she said.
In younger years she steadily got high grades, but they started dropping. "My grades were slipping because the older you get, the fewer pictures and visuals you get in your classroom."
Audra spent more time listening to lectures and trying to visualize as much as she could to compensate for her different way of learning.
In fact, she didn't even read the required novels for an eighth-grade English class but knew enough of them from watching TV and videos that she managed to pass the tests.
But since she's been diagnosed, she's gotten extra help. "A lot of my teachers are really helpful, and that's great," she said.
Being 'different'
"I've always known that I was different, and my mom knew it," Audra said. "She's been my advocate."
Her parents, Mark and Beth, tried for years to find a name for what Audra had. Beth went to speakers and talked to as many experts as possible and observed all she could.
Audra was initially misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder in middle school. But as early as age 2, Beth saw something different in Audra. "I was constantly talking to parents and talking to teachers and counselors and anyone who would listen. I was grabbing on to anything I could get my hands on."
Beth has a degree in early childhood education so she had background in child development but wasn't capable of knowing about Asperger's.
In fact, until very recently, the condition wasn't named, and many with it went undiagnosed.
It's easy to miss it, especially if the person with Asperger's is extremely high functioning. Some doctors are now releasing the theory that Bill Gates has it. Girls are less frequently diagnosed than boys because they can learn to mimic normal social behavior more easily.
Beth said, "They can be so verbal and so bright that it's hard to get people to see there's a problem."
Audra was reading before she was in kindergarten and when Beth approached teachers with social skills concerns, they often brushed it off as Audra being too smart to relate to other students and that she would catch up later.
A few more children in Rock County have been diagnosed, so Beth and Audra feel they've been a part of the education process.
Getting help
Talking openly about her condition isn't difficult for Audra. She's had to grow a thick skin after years of difficulty with peers in school.
"I was teased horribly and still am a little," she said.
Already prone to anxiety and depression because of Asperger's, Audra took that teasing very hard and was home-schooled her seventh-grade year to give her a break from it.
"I've gotten some more respect now that people see I can help myself become better," she said. She has twice-weekly appointments with psychologists and takes medication.
She used to be prone to more illnesses when under stress. With decreased anxiety from the help of medication and therapy, she has missed fewer days of school.
Nervousness can still keep her from having a good time, though. She missed out on a cast party after a play because being on stage made her feel extraordinarily tense one night. The performance went well, but afterward, she needed a rest more than a loud party.
She started auditioning for plays outside of Luverne High School to give her more experience and broaden her small circle of friends.
"I was accepted right off the bat," she said of her experiences outside of high school.
Beth said, "Creativity has always been there for her."
Most recently Audra played an evil sister in "The Mask of Beauty and the Beast," the non-Disney version of the fairy tale. She is also heard on a group of radio stations out of Worthington, most recognizably on 95.1 and 93.5 FM.
Even though she still struggles, Audra said she's relieved to have a name and a course of treatment for what had been inhibiting her from enjoying much of her life.
She's already applied to the Brown Institute in Minneapolis and plans to further her broadcasting career.
Beth said she's ready to let Audra try to live independently and give her job goals a try. But like most mothers with children entering college, she'll continue to worry.
To learn more... about Asperger's syndrome, try these sources:
Books by Tony Attwood, Carol Gray, Brenda Smith Myles or www.asperger.net and www.tonyattwood.com