Christopher John Francis Boone
Background Information
Christopher John Francis Boone is a fifteen-year-old boy from Swindon, England, who lives with a mild form of Autism. Currently, Christopher attends a specialized school for children with a range of disabilities. The type of autism Christopher suffers from affects him socially, where as academically Christopher excels beyond the average student without a learning disability. Currently Christopher’s parents are divorced with extensive family history of relationship issues and personal struggles. Christopher exhibits typical teenage wants and desires despite his challenges caused by his Autism disorder. He strives for independence and a sense of worth, which is typical for an adolescent of his age. Socially, he lacks the skills to sustain relationships of substance. Christopher lacks the ability and desire to engage is typical conversation of a teenager his age. His inability to understand and interpret facial expressions, tone, and sarcasm also make it very difficult for interactions with children his age as well as his elders. However, Christopher’s advanced knowledge comprehension allows him to memorize mass amount of information to help him through situations he is faced within relationships and social interactions with people. For example, Christopher memorized and studied facial expression charts and types of body language to help understand people when they are talking to them. Christopher compares his coping skills and reaction to life like a computer filled with raw data. Here exhibiting is lack of emotional connections. Overwhelmed by the large amount of information, people and places he encounters he describes his coping strategy: “There are lots of people there; it is like a computer crashing and I have to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears and groan, which is like pressing CTRL plus ALT and DEL and shutting down programs.” (Hadden, 2003, p.144) This is an adaption he has acquired over time to cope with his social limitations caused by his Autism.
Autism
Christopher John Francis Boone lives with Autism, a developmental disorder, is known as a complex developmental disability. The American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is;
“…the main diagnostic reference used by mental health professionals and insurance providers in the United States. The current (fourth) edition, which was published in 1994, is commonly referred to as the “DSM-IV.” The diagnosis of autism requires that at