J.D. Barker
Appearances
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I can't wear wool socks. Is that it? Yeah, there's certain things that for what I can't explain why, but it's just as horrible to me as nails on a chalkboard, like hearing that sound. And again, my daughter doesn't seem to have any of that. Or if she does, we haven't noticed it yet.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
She's at the stage where like she won't eat anything but pizza and macaroni and cheese no matter what. So I'm not sure if that's autistic or just her being seven. I know I went through that early on. I had trouble with different colors of food. I still to this day, like if you put a plate in front of me, I eat everything one at a time.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So I will eat the protein, then I will eat the potatoes, then I will eat this, you know, where somebody else might just kind of pick it, everything individually. Not necessarily a problem, just something that's different.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I was even writing back then, I would write these crazy little short stories and I would have a library in my bedroom. My sister would check them out, charge her late fees, the whole deal. And my parents encouraged that to a certain extent, but they also told me, well, you can't make a living as a writer. It's something that you do for fun. So they pushed me down the traditional path.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I mean, a lot of, I tended to go off on my own if that sort of thing happened. Like I could feel it coming on and I tried not to let it happen in front of other people. My daughter, we saw that also very early on. But at the time, we didn't know what it was. Is this a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, or is this something bigger? It's tough to tell.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
When our teacher started telling us that she was shut down on the playground because her friends didn't want to play whatever game that she wanted to play or didn't want to finish, like they were acting out a storyline and they didn't want to finish, and she would curl up in a ball
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
on the grass we knew that there was something there and again she's received a lot of a lot of help and support along that and she doesn't do it anymore you know so she doesn't know that she's autistic she doesn't know that there's anything different about her which i think at this stage is good she had a little problem and you know she worked through it with the adults in her life yeah i think that's really good i mean i've always believed that let a kid be a kid for as long as they can be a kid so as long as she's learning growing i think that's the way it should be and eventually
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, and that's definitely what we're seeing. And her friends, even at this age, they don't notice it at all. I don't think that's going to change. Whereas when I was seven, the kids definitely noticed it. They made fun of me. They wouldn't talk to me or whatever. I don't know if it's a generational thing and just kids are different these days. I don't know if it's the particular school she's at.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I'm grateful that she's not going through that, though.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, I mean, we're already seeing that, you know, there's, you know, if we as a family, like if we have a particular problem that or something that she's doing, you know, a lot of times I can talk to her and I can relate to her on a level that maybe my wife can't because I've been there and done that. And I can explain it to her. And I think that that's helpful, too.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So, you know, went to high school, got my diploma. Then I went off to college. I was down in Fort Lauderdale. I was getting a degree in business and finance to pay for the student loans and all the debt I was racking up. I ended up getting a job with RCA Records and BMG Distribution. I was essentially a glorified babysitter. So if you've ever seen the movie, get them to the Greek.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, I mean, I think I've got, you know, from a treatment standpoint, I think I've got it dialed in. I've, you know, narrowed down, you know, what was an issue before. And I think I've kind of curtailed it. Where I find myself slipping and walking a tightrope is, you know, like I write books for a living. It's a very solitary thing.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I literally sit at that desk for six to eight hours or so all by myself documenting what I see happening up here in my head.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
could spend 24 hours a day doing that i'm perfectly comfortable in my my own space all by myself more so than i am with other people but the flip side of my particular job is i do have to get out in front of people i was just recently in um in budapest and istanbul and had close to a thousand people that i had a book signing i had to get up and give a talk i had to shake hands with everybody i had to sign books for a couple of hours you know so i'm thrown basically into the complete opposite of what i consider to be my comfort zone
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
But I sort of force myself to do that because I find that the more often I do it, the easier it becomes. I could easily slip back into just 24-7 being all by myself, you know, like I was when I was younger. But by forcing myself to do these public appearances and things like that, it kind of keeps me, you know, I got one foot basically in each camp.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I don't get anxious about it anymore. I did at the beginning. I've kind of gotten past that. What I find happens is that when I'm in those situations, I'm basically dialed up to 11. I'm putting on a persona. I'm basically becoming the person that they expect to see. And I have to keep that up for X number of hours, X number of days. When I get on the flip side of that, I tend to crash.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
You know, my batteries are completely depleted and I need to recharge. So like in this case, when I was on that airplane, I basically slept the entire flight back because I was completely exhausted from what I had done the few days before. That's never changed. And I'm pretty sure at this stage, it's probably not going to.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So when I'm in a public situation and I'm forced to put on that persona, you know, to deal with those social situations, there are repercussions. There's a, you know, there's payback for that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, I mean, any typical person can go to a party and have fun, right? They can chat it up. They can have conversations. They laugh at the jokes. It's an entertaining, fun experience for them. For me, it's really not. I'm there. I'm mimicking what I see other people doing. Somebody tells a joke, and I'm laughing because other people laugh, not necessarily because I thought that was funny.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
That was essentially my job. So I would have to pick up a recording artist at the airport, get them to the radio station for their interview, get them to their concert, and then get them back out of town. I quickly realized I had some very famous people in the car. So I started to interview them to really date myself.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Again, that's not something that has ever changed, and I don't think it ever will. But that takes energy to do that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, it's very, very difficult for me. And I basically want to run away, you know, and go to the corner of the room somewhere. But I've taught myself over the years not to, to just stick it out and try to deal with it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
It's really through mimicking, right? You know, it's like I smile when I know I'm supposed to smile. I laugh when I know I'm supposed to laugh. But those aren't necessarily true emotional reactions. They're me flipping a switch.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I think we're just going to keep a very close eye on everything. You know, like I mentioned, she's very good at math. She's not quite as good at reading and writing. So we're focusing on that. I'm keeping a real close eye on what she likes to do. I'm blessed to be able to do a job that I absolutely love. Like I would do this for free and I get paid for it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I'd love to see her fall into that same thing. And I don't know that that necessarily means she's going to become a writer. She may be become a painter, she may become a computer programmer or something else. But I want to make sure that she does what she wants to do.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
You know, I'm there for her to help guide her through those more difficult things, you know, the things that she doesn't understand where she has problems. I can be a guide for that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
This was people like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson and New Kids on the Block, Madonna. Then the hair bands came to town. We had Poison, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses. If I got everybody from Guns N' Roses off an airplane, kept them in South Florida for a week and got them back on the airplane without anybody getting arrested, that was a huge win for me.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I speak to a lot of parents. And one of the reasons why I do stuff like this is just to try to get that word out there. I'm fairly successful. I've got a good career. I'm doing what I love to do. I'm 53 years old at this point. So I'm kind of on the other side of that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So if you're a parent and you've got a two-year-old that isn't speaking or a two-year-old that's banging its head against the wall on a daily basis, you're trying to figure out how are we going to get through the next 16 years of this? How are we going to raise our child? For them, it's helpful to see somebody like me, somebody that has gone through it and it's gotten to the flip side.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So I try to talk to parents about that sort of thing as much as possible.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah. But the thing is, you know, some of the most successful people in the world are autistic or were autistic, you know, so sometimes it helps to seek them out and, you know, figure out how they got there.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
No, I think that that's basically it. I mean, if you've got a child that you recently received a diagnosis on, get out there, research it, understand what you're dealing with. It's not a bad thing. You know, autism has given me, you know, like my wife had said, superpowers. You know, like I'm doing something that I normally wouldn't be able to do without it. Your child will be able to, too.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
You know, you just have to find what, you know, what is their superpower. You have to hone it. You have to help them focus on it and get them excited about it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
But I would interview them in the car and I would take those interviews and I would sell them to like Teen Magazine and Teen People and Seventeen Magazine. I would interview one person, chop it up into a bunch of different ones. And when you work in that world, you know, you quickly realize everybody that works in publishing has a novel at some stage of development in a desk drawer somewhere.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
It's always, you know, they've been working on it for the last 10 years. It's 500,000 words long. They're almost done. They feel like it needs a little bit of work. And I kind of became their go-to guy for those projects. They'd pull up the manuscript and give it to me, and I would help them with anything from punctuation and grammar to story development. I used to do that for fun.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
It kind of kept me entertained while I was getting the degree. So on the business side, I ended up getting a job in finance. Ultimately, I was a chief compliance officer for a brokerage firm, which is as horrible as it sounds. And I would come home and I would write to keep sane. I did that for, I think, 23 years.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
And during that time, I had six different books that I had worked on that all hit the New York Times bestseller list, but with other people's names on the cover. That gets really old after a while. So when that sixth one hit, my wife pulled me aside and she said, listen, I know you want to become a full-time author. Let's come up with a plan to make that happen.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
That was the first book that I wrote under my own name. It was called Forsaken. I got really lucky with that one. In the book, I had to explain where the wife buys a journal. And just to get the book finished, I wrote that she walked into Needful Things, you know, Stephen King's store and bought it there.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Fully expected to have to change that because you can't do that sort of thing without lawyers, you know, jumping down your throat, knocking on the door. But ultimately, I got Stephen King's blessing to use the reference. And that was huge for me. When word of that got out, that's really what sparked sales in that book and started my career off.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, I mean, my second one was called The Fourth Monkey, and that one really took off. It was about a serial killer in Chicago. There's a full trilogy out for that one. I ended up getting contacted at one point by Bram Stoker's estate, and they asked me to write a prequel to Dracula using Bram's original notes. So I did that one. Bunch of high profile type projects.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
James Patterson picked up one of my books at one point and read it and then reached out to me. And we ended up writing not only one book together, but I think we're on five now. So we've been writing together quite a bit. So yeah, it's been a wild ride.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
And the funny thing was even the people that I worked with who were making a living at it weren't very happy. You know, like they were getting by counting every penny that came in. And, you know, so that really kept me grounded in that corporate world because I hated the job, but it was a steady paycheck and it was a good paycheck. So it was hard to walk away from it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I mean, ultimately, that's what ended up happening.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
happening but we kind of got trapped in that because you know when you have a decent corporate job for a number of years like I did you know we had all the trappings of that we had a big house we had cars we had a boat that lifestyle is expensive you know so I couldn't walk away from the job because we needed the job to pay for the lifestyle so ultimately when my wife came to me and you know we came up with this plan to become a full-time author she came up with this crazy idea we ended up selling everything that we owned we bought a duplex in Pittsburgh and rented out one side of the duplex and lived in the other one
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
just essentially so that I could live off of savings long enough to write Forsaken, write that first book. And I got lucky. It took off and it worked.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
That actually came out of the corporate world. I was chief compliance officer for a brokerage firm, which is essentially I was in charge of making sure all the employees and clients adhered to all the state and government rules and regulations when it came to the stock trading. And I was really good at it, but the problem was I could work with numbers. I could work with computers.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
I was terrible at working with people. And I was 22 at the time. I had a big blowout with a couple of the members of senior staff. And my boss pulled me aside and he said, listen, I want you to continue working here. You're a great employee, but we need to figure out how to deal with this. So he sent me to anger management classes. My first session, it was a one-on-one with a therapist.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
She stopped about 20 minutes in and she said, listen, have you ever been tested for autism? And other than watching Rain Man, I had no idea what that even was or meant. She had worked with autistic children. That's what her day job was. And she had seen just in those 20 minutes, you know, a couple of signs that were, you know, they were flags for her.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
My hands were constantly moving, doing something. I didn't make eye contact during the conversation. You know, all these things sort of jumped out at her. So ultimately I was tested and I was diagnosed with Asperger's.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
That answered a lot of questions for me because up until that point, I had no idea, you know, why I had trouble in social situations, why I couldn't relate to other people, you know, a lot of those types of things. But at the same time, you know, I was very good with structure, with anything that was structured, you know, and patterns. Yeah, I was great at it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
It was fairly quick. I mean, all of it came together in under a month, three or four different sessions.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Well, it basically became another puzzle for me to solve, another problem for me to fix. And once I approached it from that standpoint, I was kind of all in. I got every book that I could find on it, every documentary. I just researched everything I could. And at the same time, I was working with that therapist, and she helped me with the simple things like eye contact and stuff like that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
It just pointed out what I was subconsciously doing. And once it was brought to light and I saw it, there was a couple of sessions where she just videotaped conversations. Even the fact that I talk fast. I mean, I still do that today, but like she, you know, explained why I talk fast and how it was impacting other people that couldn't follow a conversation at that speed.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So once those things started coming to light, I was able to address them one at a time. And now I'm 30 some years in, I can have a conversation and make eye contact. I have to force myself to do it, you know, which is another whole thing. But I can, you know, more or less play the part of somebody who's atypical, I guess is probably the simplest way to describe it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Well, for me, the reason she pointed it out, I was doing something called cluttering at the same time. So somebody would ask me a question and I would get three to five different answers to that question would all pop up in my head at the same time. And then I would try to verbalize all three to five of those answers all at once.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So what should have been five different sentences basically got all mishmashed together and came out, you know, like this word vomit. And that was why she brought it up. She basically taught me to, you know, slow down the conversation a little bit, grab just one of those answers out of the air and just verbalize one of them rather than four or five of them all at the same time.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
But, you know, it still happens with me. Like when I'm excited about a topic, I tend to talk really, really, really quick.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, that's exactly what happened. I mean, it was something that I had been doing, you know, all along, but never really realized it. I just, that was my norm. That was just the way things was. But until she pointed it out and said, hey, you're doing this, you know, I didn't realize that I was actually doing it. But, you know, at that point, we basically created more or less a pro and cons list.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
You know, here are the things that are negatives that we should try to work on. Here are the things that you should focus on because autism, you know, not only did it have negatives, but it also had some pretty strong positives. A lot of the things that I was able to do in the corporate world, a typical person may not be able to do.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
What I do today, you know, writing books, like, I mean, you can see my desk behind me. It's more or less empty. But I'm working on eight different books right now all at the same time. And they're up here. They're in my head. Like, that entire structure is there. I used to write computer code.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
If you write any type of computer code, when you write that first sentence, you have to understand how it's going to impact the last sentence and everything in between. Writing a book to me isn't different. It's another pattern that I see and I'm able to recognize.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
My wife calls those superpowers, you know, like we basically, the autistic, the good things that came out of it, you know, we focused on those.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, I think I tweaked the existing patterns. For anybody like me, patterns are extremely important. A rigid schedule for me is extremely important. So when those things change, you know, my world kind of goes into chaos. Because those things were brought to the forefront, I was able to recognize them as the day went on and, you know, adjust for them.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
And it's been 30 some years and I'm still doing it today. You know, it's not something that goes away.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Well, I've always kept my circle of friends fairly small. I think that the ones that, you know, people that were close to me, I think it was it created an understanding for them, too. They understood why I was just a little bit different. I'm very big on having dialogue about that sort of thing. You know, so we talked about a lot of it. I explain how I perceive certain things.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
My wife has been a tremendous help in all this because in a lot of ways, as an autistic person, when I'm out in public, I'm putting on a particular persona. It's almost like I'm an actor. I'm mimicking what people expect me to be, but you can't keep that up 24 seven, you know? So when I'm home, my wife sees that other side of me. That's very helpful too.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
In a lot of ways, she helps me understand, you know, somebody who's atypical. So if her reaction to something is different from my reaction, she explains why. And, you know, I try to understand it from her standpoint and vice versa. So my friends this entire time, the last 30 years, they've all kind of been like that. They've been my sounding boards.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Yeah, that's essentially what we do too. And I think, you know, if you're in a relationship with somebody like that where you are so different, I think that's extremely important. We've got a daughter now who's seven years old and she was recently diagnosed. We both brought certain things to the table because she doesn't have a lot of the symptoms that I have. She's got her own set of symptoms.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
But, you know, I was still able to recognize some. But, you know, we're able to talk out a lot of this stuff, I think, on a level that a lot of other couples probably couldn't.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
So I've been reading since I was really young. I started reading around three years old. And by the time I got into kindergarten, I'd read all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews. And I was kind of really taken by the fact that you could basically create a world, create people, anything that you wanted within the pages of a book. And like that completely fascinated me.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
A little bit of both. You know, I started seeing things when she was maybe 18 months old, you know, just little things, you know, like she would build like a block tower and like if she was stopped before she finished, you know, like she would get very upset about it. Like she needed to finish whatever task she was working on. To me, that was, you know, a red flag.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
But at the same time, I kept telling myself, well, you're looking for stuff where it may not be because she had no trouble making eye contact. She has no trouble being touched by other people where I, you know, that completely freaks me out if, you know, somebody touches me and I'm not ready for it. She's very good in social situations. So, you know, it's, it's a very different set of things.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
She's got her own issues too, but the nice thing is like she was diagnosed at six, you know, she's seven now. We found it very early and her school has been phenomenal. Our teachers have been phenomenal at, you know, helping with that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
Back in the seventies when I was, you know, like it wasn't even something they looked for, you know, you were the weird kid, they pushed off into the corner and that was it. In today's world, they tend to embrace it. They find ways to work around it. She's fantastic at math.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
J.D. Barker: From Aspiring Writer to Bestselling Author and Autism Advocate
She's not very good at reading, but they're focusing their efforts on reading and coming up with different ways to teach her how to read. So far, it's been great.