Asperger’s
Dayne Lenton
Dayne Lenton lives with his mum Lesley in Sea Mills, and since he was young has seen the world very differently to everyone else. He has Aspergers, a form of autism, and now copes daily with the condition.Dayne doesn’t see what’s expected, he sees behind things, and he’s always been fascinated by light.He would sit transfixed in class watching a beam of light all day, or look for hours at two birds on a branch.His mother describes attempting to explain something to Dayne as: “Trying to describe a stick of rock to an Eskimo”.Dayne loves facts and devours encyclopaedias and thesauruses - studying them for hours. He also has an uncanny ability to spell, literally seeing the word in his head.He was seen as the class clown - never invited to kids' birthday parties - and although he could see himself constantly annoying others he couldn’t help himself.Aspergers also makes Dayne unable to watch other people eat. He has to put different food on separate plates, ensuring different coloured food is never put together.Dayne says he has had to adapt to fit into our world, because the world will never change to suit him.
Transcript
I’m Dayne Lenton. I live in Sea Mills and I’ve got Asperger’s.
I never really understood myself. I suppose that’s why I’m really good at art. Sea Mills, Blaise Castle… not many people know about like down in Henbury and stuff.
I based some of my art project down there. Ever since I was little I just used to bike down there and just chill out when I was stressed out and my parents were arguing.
During the summer when all the sunlight’s coming through the trees… There’s this one certain spot where there’s this little bench and when you look up this hill and there’s it’s like you look and where the sun’s coming through the trees and it’s at a really weird angle there’s optical illusion? Where the trees all look like they’re all on the same level? But they’re actually sloping upwards?
[Dayne’s mother:] He explained the colours to me, and the way that colours moved and they changed.
[Dayne:] “The spectrum… the spectrum of light.” (laughs).
[Dayne’s mother:] Yeah, but you’ve always talked in spectrums…
[Dayne:] Autistic spectrum (both laugh).
[Sound of rustling bags]
[Dayne’s mother:] If he likes to eat ten fish fingers, what’s wrong with that – he’s eating ten fish fingers ‘cause at one point all we could get him to eat was bloody toast.
[Dayne:] Yeah, at least now it’s fish.
[Dayne’s mother:] Dayne can’t bear to watch other people eat and he doesn’t like food mixing on his plate and he doesn’t like…
[Dayne:] Back then I used to have it all sectioned off…
[Dayne’s mother:] You used to have separate plates: one plate for your potatoes (laughs) and one plate for something else.
[Dayne:] It was always like textures. If a food smelt funny I couldn’t eat it. I always figured it always tasted how it smelt so if it smelt bad I ain’t eating it.
I saw myself actually annoying people, but you know when you kind of feel like a bystander, like I couldn’t help it and I was like “Oh, nobody likes me. Why doesn’t anybody like me?”
I’ve had to adapt myself to the world because I know the world can’t adapt. It tries, to adapt to people like me but it can’t. It’s up to me.
[Dayne’s mother:] But he is right. The world isn’t going to change for him.
