BUT HE LOOKS SO NORMAL...

Well in many ways Nate IS like any other "normal" 7 year old boy.
He likes to run around, play in the dirt and annoy his older sister. He likes to play ball and play video games. He plays a mean game of chess and his favorite part of the school day is recess. He loves animals and says he wants to be a veternarian when he grows up. He likes playing with cars (even if his idea of playing is lining them all up and leaving them in the hallway for us to trip over). His favorite subjects in school are math and science. He will read anything and everything to do with planets, nature and he really likes dragons. He will spend hours building things with his Knex and legos.He just has a few things that makes him "quirky" or as some people say "eccentric".
Nathan has many sensory problems and he has a hard time controlling his behavior, especially in certain environments. He doesn't make friends very easily and he gets confused when it comes to social cues and rules. A lot of people say "well everyone has quirks". That is true but unlike the rest of us he gets stuck and can't filter things out as easily. We might have things that annoy us or temporarily set us back but we can find ways on our own to overcome and function. Aspergers makes it impossible to do this without help. That is why it is currently called a "developmental disability".
I don't look at him and see a "disabled" little boy though. I see a very smart kid who's brain works in a way that society hasn't caught up with yet.