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1 August 2006
RAIN MAN? NO I'M FINE

UNABLE TO SPEAK AND PRONE TO SELF HARMING, LITTLE KAMRAN NAZEER WAS
DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM AGED FIVE. NOW A HAPPY HIGH-FLIER AT 28, HE
HOPES HIS NEW BOOK
ABOUT HIS FORMER CLASSMATES' LIVES CAN BURY PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT
THE CONDITION
By Maria Croce

KAMRAN NAZEER is fluent in five languages, works in Whitehall, has
a law
degree from Glasgow University and a PhD from Cambridge - not bad
for someone
with autism who didn't speak until he was five.
The 28-year-old policy officer's story is a tale of triumph over
adversity.
As a youngster he'd throw himself at walls until he was black and
blue and
wouldn't socialise with other children.
But his parents were determined to help him live as normal a life
as
possible and sent him to a special school where he gradually began
to communicate.
By the age of eight he had caught up academically and at 12 he
joined a
mainstream school.
Soon he became proficient in English, Urdu, Punjabi, French and
Latin.

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And today - with his high-flying career and loving girlfriend -
some of his
colleagues would be surprised to learn of his early diagnosis.

Kamran uses coping mechanisms he learned at school to deal with
stressful
situations - but then playing with a pen or mentally preparing to
meet
strangers are not dissimilar to the actions of millions of people
every day.

Now he has written a book - Send In The Idiots: Or HowWe Grew To
Understand
The World - in which he finds out how his classmates from his New
York
special school cope with autism in adulthood.

He believes the book will bring hope to parents of autistic
children by
showing how far they can progress.

Kamran admits: "I thought I was the lucky one and thought I'd find
something
much more pessimistic.

"But my classmates, who have a broad range of different symptoms,
have all
made progress and that's hopeful.

"When parents find out their kid is autistic it's often a difficult
experience for them as they don't know what's going to happen next
and over the next
20 years.

"If there's more hope around autism and more research into it - if
we get
even better at learning how to teach autistic people and develop
their
capabilities - I think it would ease parents' dilemma."

Kamran's parents are from Pakistan but he's lived in NewYork, Saudi
Arabia,
Glasgow and now London.

He admits he has few memories of when he was young and relies on
his
parents' recollections.

He said: "I'd rush from one end of a room to another and bang into
the
walls. I don't think I realised I was getting hurt.

"With autistic children it's not that they experience the world
differently
- they don't experience it at all."

"I'm not even sure I was correctly diagnosed. I might just have had
language
problems. But I think having the right help early was important.

"My parents have great faith in the professionals. They knew I was
getting
help so they're not surprised that I turned out okay."

Kamran was only slightly affected by autism, although some of his
classmates
had more severe symptoms.

He said:"Many people think of autism and remember Dustin Hoffman in
the
movie Rain Man.

"But Rain Man is a very extreme example of someone with severe
autism who is
specially gifted.

"It's very rare for people to be that gifted."

What is common among autistic people is an attention to detail.
Kamran said:
"That can be a problem. In a social setting an autistic person
could be
looking at how many people in a room are wearing green - it's that
kind of
attention to detail."

Preconceptions about the condition followed him at school. He
recalled:
"Other kids didn't treat me differently but teachers would make me
feel
different.

"They expected me to be a brilliant mathematician. I remember one
looking at
me when she wrote a calculation on the blackboard because she
thought I
might interrupt with the answer."

Despite the growing research into his condition Kamran felt no one
had
looked at how adults coped with their condition.

BUT he was surprised at what he discovered when he tracked down his
former
classmates with autism - Craig, Andre, Randall and Elizabeth.

He said: "I expected people to be worse off than they were. I'd
expected
them to be living with their parents maybe with 24/7 care.

"I didn't expect them to go to university or hold down jobs. I
thought I'd
be the lucky one as my difficulties with autism are very slight.

"I felt I was a special case. I thought the others' symptoms were
more
severe and as a consequence they would still have major problems.

"Craig works for the US Government as a speech writer.

"But between election campaigns he has trouble getting a job as he
can't
look anyone in the eye.

"It's frustrating for him as he'd love to do something other than
speech
writing."

Andre is a computer engineer - but sometimes communicates with
people
through hand-made puppets.

Kamran said:"He joined a research project but, despite his
qualifications,
they didn't take him on as a researcher because of his autism. So
he's a
technician. He still has serious problems with communication and
the way he
overcomes that is by using puppets.

"It's an odd way to go about things, but he's very creative and it
shows his
desire to want to communicate."

Randall is a bicycle courier - but he can be late with deliveries
because he
feels compelled to stop and fix his bike if it makes a noise.

To compensate, he always goes into work extra early to help his
supervisor
organise deliveries.

Elizabeth is the most tragic among the group of classmates.

She also suffered from depression and, sadly, committed suicide.

Despite the varying degrees of their setbacks, Kamran believes his
classmates' stories offer hope.

He also believes we should concentrate on what people are able to
do, rather
than become preoccupied with labelling them.

He said: "I've never worried about whether I'm normal or different,
what
matters to me is am I able to do the things I want to do.The label
doesn't
matter.

"I find I'm able to do the things I want to do. And - with some
exceptions -
the people in the book have been able to do the things they want.

"Craig hasn't been able to get his dream job - but then, he has got
a good
job as a speech writer.

"We should look at how much they can learn, how much they can
expand their
capacities, what developmental needs they can meet rather than
whether
they're'normal'.

"Labels don't really help very much.

"They take joy in conversation because it is something they used to
have
problems with and still find difficult. So when they're able to do
it they find
pleasure in that. For most people, getting into conversation on a
bus is
ordinary, but for an autistic person, they can think back to when
they wouldn't
have been able to do it."

Kamran doesn't hide his autism.

He admitted: "There are some things I do that could be classified
as
unusual.

"Before going into a room of people, I think about knowing at least
one of
them. Then I use that person as an anchor. It's one of my coping
mechanisms.

"I'm very happy to talk about it. If somebody asks me where I first
went to
school I say a special needs school and that I was diagnosed with
autism. Or
if someone asks me why I am playing with a pen I'll say I'm
nervous."

While travelling to America promoting his book, Kamran was stopped
by a
Customs officer at the airport.

As he'd just been to the Middle East, he expected a grilling.

Kamran recalled: "Instead, he read a little of the book, realised
it was a
book about autism and told me his son had just been diagnosed with
the
condition.

"I'd expected to be escorted to a private interview room but he
looked up
from the book and there were tears in his eyes.

"I wrote this book as a writer, but when I was touring in the US I
felt I
was being asked to behave like a self-help guru - which I don't
think I'm
qualified to be. But I hope the book brings people hope."

Send in the Idiots is published by Bloomsbury at £12.99. Kamran
will talk as
part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival at the Highland
Park
Spiegeltent at 7.30pm on Monday, August 21