Thursday Blog: Week Two

While reading Marcelo in the real world by Francisco X. Stork, I have begun to notice some ways the author chooses to portray Marcelo’s disorder. Some of the most prominent things I have noticed about Marcelo are his behaviors. Some of these behaviors are avoided eye contact, speaks in the third person, specializes in one topic, and participates in a social interactions class. All of these things are connected to his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome. In relation to my original topic, I will see if some of Marcelo’s behaviors line up with actual behaviors of someone diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome to determine if the book is an accurate representation of an ASD.

Source: biomedcentral.com

This list from everydayhealth.com is what I will compare Marcelo’s behavior with. 

• Poor eye contact or the tendency to stare at others
• Inability to recognize humor, irony, and sarcasm
• Inappropriate behaviors or odd mannerisms
• Problems expressing empathy, controlling emotions, or communicating
• Fascination with certain topics 







• Interpretation of information as literal



Source: tedxtacoma.com

As you can see the connection between Marcelo’s behavior and this list are very similar. Even some of his behaviors which I did not write down are represented in this list. First, Marcelo has difficulties maintaining eye contact. When looking up more about eye contact and ASD I found this website where people with Autism describe what making eye contact is like for them. Some of the statements from the people interviewed line up with Marcelo’s explanation as to why he struggles with it.

Speaking in the third person connects to problems communicating. In addition to talking to the third person, Marcelo also has problems controlling and portraying his emotions. From birth, his parents knew he was different because he never cried and he also took much longer than an ordinary child. Instead of referring to his parents by mom and dad he calls them by their first name and instead of saying I or me he refers to himself as Marcelo. Overall Marcelo is an accurate representation of someone with Asperger’s syndrome so far in the book.