Transcript

ILONA ROTH

You have talked a little about your childhood and you’ve written about your childhood; in what ways did you feel different from others when you were growing up?

WENN LAWSON

I know that I didn’t experience life in the same way as other children simply because people kept referring to things which didn’t make sense to me, everyday things, children’s games, things that adults required of you, things that were said. When people said things like they would just be a minute, but they weren’t a minute, they were much longer, I used to feel lied to and get very angry about things which other people, other children, kinda took in their stride, so those sorts of things I think I experienced very differently

ILONA ROTH

Would you say that you felt lonely as a child?

WENN LAWSON

That’s a difficult one because I don’t think I felt lonely. I often felt alone, because of being misunderstood, the isolation of not connecting to understanding, which is actually quite different to feeling lonely, I think

ILONA ROTH

And looking back now how do you think your autism manifested itself in your behaviour as a child and adolescent?

WENN LAWSON

I was very obsessive, I had interests that just took over all of my being really, mostly interests in insects, in animals, later on in my teens very obsessed with engines; piston engines in particular not into rotaries, and I think that was very noticeable because my sisters and my brother were not interested in those sorts of things and the things they were interested in often varied so they would be interested in something for a very short time and then that would change, whereas my interests, my passions, were very passionate and stayed with me for quite a while. Other things that were quite different was I didn’t talk for quite a while and then when I did speak I tended to monologue or talk about the things that I was interested in and not so good at listening or turn-taking-those sorts of things; very noticeably different to the ways my sisters and brother interacted with their peers and with each other.