ENRICO GNAULATI - Continued...

”Introverted, highly intelligent boys may appear vacant and nonresponsive when asked a question like "What is your favorite animal?" Yet in their minds, they may be deeply and actively processing copious amounts of information on types and defining features of animals and zeroing in on precise words to use to articulate thir complex thoughts. Thirty seconds, a minute, or even more time may pass before an answer is supplied. In the meantime, the listener might wonder if the boy is deaf or completely self-absorbed.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 167-168.

”Brainy, introverted boys may cherish and look forward to alone time, which allows them the opportunity to indulge their intellectual appetites full throttle, amassing knowledge through reading or Internet searches. Solitude creates the time and space they need to totally immerse themselves in their preferred interests. They may get more turned on by studying ideas, pursuing science projects, or by solving math problems than by conversing with people.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

”In our extroverted culture, where being a "team player" and a "people person" are seen as linchpins of normalcy, the notion that a brainy, introverted boy might legitimately prefer the world of ideas over the world of people is hard for most people to accept. Parents of such boys may feel terribly uneasy about their tendency to want to be alone and try to push their sons to be sociable and to make more friends. But if you get to know such boys, they would much rather be alone reading, writing, or pursuing projects that stimulate their intellect than be socializing with peers who are not their intellectual equals.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

”With people who share their interests, especially people who possess equal or greater knowledge in these areas, brainy, introverted boys can display quite normal social skills.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 168.

”We forget how immersion in an activity, and repetition of it, can lead to an experience of mastery. Lining up trains in identical order, making the same sounds, and pulling them with the same force can rekindle the same feeling of mastery that was felt the first time this activity went well.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

”Not all repetitiveness and needs for sameness speak to autistic tendencies. When a toddler appears driven to use his body effectively in the accomplishment of a task and to further an experience of mastery, it's unlikely that he's on the spectrum no matter how repetitive the task becomes--particulary if that toddler shows self-pride and wants others to share in the excitement of it all, even in quiet and subdued ways.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

”Self-absorption while studying objects is expectable behavior for male toddlers, especially for those on the upper end of the bell curve on visual-spatial intelligence.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 170.

”When we mistake a brainy, introverted boy for an autism spectrum disordered one, we devalue his mental gifts. We view his ability to become wholeheartedly engrossed in a topic as a symptom that needs to be stamped out, rather than a form of intellectualism that needs to be cultivated.”
Gnaulati, Enrico (2013) Back to normal. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts. p. 174.