Welcome to Why Not Me, the World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantour.

Broadcasting from Music City, USA. Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our

guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry.

Real life people who will inspire and show

that you are not alone in this world.

Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,

and a better understanding for autism around the World. Today's guest is Tom Island.

He's a coach, author, and a toastmaster's accredited speaker. There's only 93 of them in the world,

and he's the only one, this autistic.

He's got a great story to tell us.

I'm happy to have him join us today,

so thanks for coming on. I appreciate you having me.

Oh it's my pleasure.

I understand that you was diagnosed autistic in your early teens is that correct?

13 officially that's when I was officially diagnosed or told about my diagnosis at least.

Okay, what were some of the things that led up to getting your diagnosis?

From a young age I showed the signs as far as that lying up my toys there was a time I went six months without talking right and my

aunts that's my mother's sister was the autism specialist for the state of Illinois.

Oh, and I was on the spectrum and I didn't fit the criteria back in the mid 80s in which you had to have

an intellectual disability or mental retardation to fit the diagnosis criteria. I did not and I do not have such a diagnosis so I was not officially diagnosed in the mid 80s, but in the mid 90s the criteria changed you don't have to have an intellectual disability to have the social behavior,

communication, sensory difficulties that come with autism.

Okay. The story I like to tell in my

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