The game, not the life-scale financial deal.

August 10 is the birthday of Charles Darrow who (it is said) invented the game, though there were earlier versions of it.

He was rejected by a major producer until he sold 5000 homemade copies of the game. An inspiration to creative types!

My guest this week is author Josephine Mele. In 2012, Jo and her then 10-year-old grandson, Nick, put together an article for Parents Magazine to help parents and others to understand the symptoms and behaviors of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Here’s Jo, writing today, with an update.

My grandson just got his first job. This might not seem blogworthy news, but it is for our family. Nick is on the autism spectrum and for him working in person, with strangers is monumental and exhausting.
High functioning autistics exhibit poor social interactions, odd speech patterns, limited facial expressions, and peculiar mannerisms. They might engage in obsessive routines or show an unusual sensitivity to sensory stimuli. For a person on the spectrum, you may see one or more of the following symptoms:
• Inappropriate or minimal social interactions
• Conversations that revolve around themselves or a certain topic, rather than others
• Not understanding emotions well or having less facial expression than others
• Speech that sounds unusual, such as flat, high-pitched, quiet, loud, or robotic
• Not using or understanding nonverbal communication, such as gestures, body language and facial expression.

Nick came home exhausted and went right to bed. The good news – he went back to work the next day.

Check out the original article, “The ABCs of Asperger’s Syndrome: An A-to-Z Guide to Understanding the Symptoms of Asperger’s.”

Josephine Mele is a world traveler, mystery writer, and tour guide. Her latest mystery, “Incident in India,” was released this month.