In Howard's case, he noticed his problems early on. Speech was always difficult for him, as were more abstract social skills like education and relationship building. He stuttered. He cried. He struggled to pronounce words. His brain retreated into paralyzing spells of fear anytime he was to forced to speak amongst groups. Gradually Howard's head became a fog, and school only made things worse.
"Growing up, I was always in Special Education classes," he says. "I always struggled with learning disabilities. But back in the day, when I was coming up in school, we didn't have autism, ADHD, all these things that we know about now. We didn't have the science to understand it. So if you were any kind of handicapped, or your thoughts were flawed, you were put in Special Education automatically. I went my whole childhood being in Special Education class, basically thinking that I was slow and stupid.
