Joshua's Tough Questions for His Mother 有你这样的儿子，我感到欣慰骄傲

When you come to do an interview at StoryCorps, they provide you with a list of questions. But 12-year-old Joshua Littman chose not to use them. Joshua has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. And when he sat down to interview his mother, Sarah, the questions he asked kept her on her toes...

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Welcome to the storycorps podcast, when you come to a called interview at storycorp, we provide you with a list of questions to use during your session. Most people use it for at least part of their interview, but not everyone does. Joshua Littman didn't use our questions. He has /an/ Asperger syndrome,a form of autism. He was diagnosed when he was 5 and surely after ..... his family moved from their home England to the U.S. Joshua's mom,Sara,describes children with Asperger r`s syndrome, a form of autism, he was diagnosed when he was 5, and shortly afterward, his family moved from their home in England to the US.

Joshua’s mum, Sarah, describes children with Aspergers as born without social genes. They can come across as eccentric and have obsessions, for Joshua, it's animals.

When the Littmans came to StoryCorps, Joshua was a 7th grade honor student but was having a tough time socially. He wanted to interview his mom in the questions he wrote /that/ were unlike anything we'd heard before at StroyCorps.

From a scale of 1--10, do you think your life would be different without animals?

I think we'll be an * without animals because they add so much pleasure to life.

How * /that life like/ do you think your life would be different without them?

I could do without things like cockroaches and snakes.

Well, I’m ok if snakes are * none animals or * you are anything.

You know, I'm not a snake big person.

But cockroaches are just the insects we love to hate.

Yeah, it really is.

Have you ever felt like life is hopeless?

Um, when I was a teenager, I was very depressed and I think that can be quite common with teenagers who think a lot. You know in their perceptive.

Am I like that?

You are very much like that.

Do you have any model /or/ enemies?

I would say my worst enemy is sometimes myself, but I don't think I have any model /or/ enemies.

Have you ever lied to me?

Umm. I probably have, but I'm trying not to lie to you even though sometimes the questions you asked me were, you know, uncomfortable.

Like when we go on our * or some of the questions I might ask/ed/?

Yeah, but you know what, I feel it's really special that you and I can have those kind of talks even if sometimes I feel myself blushing a little bit

Have you for you can cope with having a child(s)?

I remember when you were a baby, you had really bad colleagues so you were crying and crying.

What colleague?

It’s when you get the stomachache, or all you do is screaming for * four hours and …

Even aloud * he does?

You were pretty loud but Amis was more high preached.

I think I feel like everyone seems to like Amy Moore like she is like the perfect little angel.

Well ,I can understand why you think there people like Amy Moore and I'm not saying it’s because of your Asperger syndrome, but being friendly comes easily to Amy. Where’s I think for you it's more difficult, but the people who take the time to get to know you love you so much.

Like Ben or Arica Carlos?

Yeah.

And like I have better quality of friends, but less quantity?

I will, I wouldn't judge the quality but I think…

I mean first as Amy loved Cordia, and then hated Cordia, that she loved Cordia and she hated Cordia.

Yeah, partly you know, part of that’s a girl’s thing honey, the important thing for you is that you have a few very good friends and really that's what you need in life.

Did I * the son you wanted when I was born? I did, I mean, your expectations and.

You exceeded my expectations, sweetie. Because you know, sure you have these fantasies of what your child is gonna be like .but you have made me grow so much as a parent because you think…

..........made you a parent?

You were the one who made me a parent, that's a good point. But also because you think differently from you know, what they told you in the parenting books.

 Yeah.

I really had to learn to think out the box with you and it's made me much more creative as a parent and as a person and I'll always think/ing/ for that.

And then how's * when Amy was born?

And I helped with Amy was born but you were just so incredibly special to me and I'm so lucky to have you as my son.

That's Sarah Littman with her son Joshua. It has been a couple of years since they are called in that story. We recently checked in with her about what it meant for them to have their story on the radio.

To hear our voices, is coming over the radio was really astounding but the most * thing about it was the response we got from all over the country and even now I read through some of the emails /so/ and I start crying because Joshua was going through an extremely difficult time at school and we’ve got over 500 emails saying what a intelligent and wonderful person he was and one of the things I did was put all the fan mail in a binder for him so that if he ever felt bad about himself, that he should re-through it and see how many people from all over the country thought that he was an incredible kid. The same way I do.

Major support for StoryCorps provided by state farm, and the cooperation for public broadcasting. Our podcasts are supported by F* institute, is part of its campaign for love and forgiveness. Learn more at loveandforgive.org, our story call interview is a house at the American Folklike Center, at the library of congress. And you can catch story call on the radio, Fridays, on NPR’s morning edition.

I’m Michael Graphllar for the StoryCorp podcast, thanks for listening.