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The Woes of Wit (in Russian)

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Not long ago I read Maria Dubova's book "Mama, Au. How a Child with Autism Taught Us to Be Happy" and once again got fired up about writing my own book about my own children. Perhaps, this sounds too ambitious, but bear with me. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it until now. On top of it, I was not convinced this venture would be helpful to anyone: ​​what can I possibly say that those who have encountered similar problems don’t already know? Reading Maria's book though helped me see three goals – three reasons why my book should be written. True, I know a few moms and dads who are much more experienced compared to me and would be better candidates for sharing their wisdom, but they either chose not to do it or haven’t gotten around to it yet either. So, I thought, “Why shouldn’t I try to do it myself?”

This book will be helpful to those who are just embarking on their journey and do not know what to expect, how to survive, and what to do. This same book will also help those who have nothing to do with its topic – just like "Mama, Au" will help people who know nothing about autism come closer to understanding and accepting it. Finally, I hope my book will serve me as a form of therapy – a selfish goal, indeed – by forcing me to relive what our family has been through in the last 15 years and maybe even prepare us for what lies ahead.​

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So, what is this book going to be about? Let me start by saying that I live in California, where I moved with my parents from Ukraine in ‘96, when I was 16. My husband is local. We have two kids: the eldest just turned 15, and our youngest is 12. Both are twice-exceptional (an awkward term, I know), which means gifted (profoundly gifted in our case, in fact) and having a learning difference at the same time. In other words, while both have a very high IQ (exceptionality number one), our son is autistic, and our daughter is dyslexic (exceptionality number two). There are many books on giftedness in English – though I have come across only a couple on profound giftedness – and there are some on twice exceptionality. However, my extensive search uncovered only one in Russian. In general, there are so few resources in Russian on the topics of neurodiversity, giftedness, learning differences, twice-exceptionality, and strengths-based talent-focused practices (which are essential for supporting these unique populations) that I decided to start trying to fill that void.

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I'm neither a psychologist, nor a teacher, neither a writer, nor a journalist – I'm simply the mother of my children (though while I was getting ready to share my writing in the public domain I went back to school and am now a doctoral student learning about cognitive diversity in education), and I want to tell our story. As one of the dyslexia specialists told me when I complained that the experience gained with my son does not seem to be helping us at all with our daughter, it's time to write a book – it's my destiny, it seems.

Cybersecurity

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  • Munoz, A. & O’Neil, Y. (2016, May). Static detection of ORM-through vulnerabilities [Paper]. HPE TechCon 2016 Conference.

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  • HPE Security Research. (2016, February). The HPE cyber risk report 2016 [White paper].

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  • O’Neil, Y.T. (2015, March). Crypto manifesto 2015 [White paper]. HP Security Research.

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  • HP Security Research. (2015, February). Cyber risk report 2015 [White paper].

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  • O’Neil, Y.T., Forsythe, J.M., & Munoz, A. (2014). Automatic detection of inadequate authorization checks in web applications using static analysis [Paper]. HP TechCon 2014 Conference.

 

 

  • O’Neil, Y.T. (2009, March). Crypto manifesto [White paper]. Fortify Software.

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