“John and Erika Speak”
Thursday, April 24, 2008 -- 6 p.m.
Tartan High School
828 Greenway Avenue, Oakdale

John has experienced being an anomaly in most people’s view of the world. Before being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 24, he was misdiagnosed multiple times. Tests showed he was both disabled and very intelligent.

John consistently breaks generalizations that society places on the human mind. He enjoys showing others his unique perspective of the world through photography, graphic arts, speaking, humor and writing. He also enjoys working with parrots and frequently finds parallels between them and people with autism.

Erika was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and Tourette’s Syndrome at the age of 11. She graduated from Augsburg College in 2004 with majors in German and Spanish and a minor in arts. She has studied abroad in Germany, Austria, Mexico and Spain, among other countries.

Erika has written a book about her life entitled “Born on the Wrong Planet.” In it, she describes the feeling of being a creature from another planet trapped in a human body, where she must cope without the instincts for human social interaction in a place where she must study humans like a foreign culture before being able to fit in.

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