We love Emperor, but he can be pretty annoying to those who aren't used to him. And to some people who are. He doesn't realize that he is actually *shouting* movie lines over and over, or that people don't appreciate his silly banter and constant talking. He needs to learn make eye contact at least occasionally so that others interacting with him can realize that he is, in fact, speaking to them.
And we're ok with his obsession with Hello Kitty and Pokemon. We just want him to be ok with the fact that not everyone has the same obsessions, nor do they want to hear lines from Mary Poppins about good banking practices or the Hobbit riddles repeated ad nauseam. He's a smart enough boy that he should learn to be a bit more "bilingual" in our neurotypical world. But because he is homeschooled and three of his brothers are on the autism spectrum, it's difficult for his parents to present an adequate number of positive peer models or to consistently demonstrate proper social interaction.
On paper, Emperor is a classic autistic, but he can speak well, read and write, and will be beginning pre-algebra next month. But he needs some way to learn rules for everyday living. He will do things like go through doors that read "DO NOT ENTER" because, he reasons, he is exiting and the sign does not apply to him.
And for crying out loud, it is not the "Core of Babylon" when I give him the center of an apple.
He misapplies idiomatic expressions like this all the time. Ants in the pants. Fly on the wall.
I explain myself to him about 900 times a day (yay, another idiom... Emperor would actually probably have a *real* number in mind), but there are just some things he doesn't quite "get" yet. Doggone it, it can be embarrassing.
I'm asking for a local social skills class scholarship, so I submitted MOST of the above as one long rambling paragraph about stuff he needs to work on. It's a longshot I had to take because really, I think this class would help him quite a bit... but they like to focus on the Aspie guys, not people diagnosed with straight-out autism like Emperor. Meh. Same kid no matter which label you slap on him. I'm slapping "creatively literal" on him and declaring that he's the cutest Emperor ever. :)
This made me smile becuase it reminds me a lot of my little brother, who is on the autism spectrum as well. He is grown now and has learned a lot of social skills that he didn't have when he was younger, but man, can he ever TALK! And talk and talk and talk!
ReplyDeleteMy mother has many creative idioms because her native language is German. We've kept track of them over the years because some are so funny. Not too long ago she told me, "Did you know that Jane So-and-so had to get a vasectomy?" More to Jane than meets the eye, I guess!
ReplyDelete"Kiss the bucket."
Another goodie, "I was playing Russian Roulette with my friends, and I won!"
That is my Chahrlie to a "T". They did label him Aspie even though he is awfully young for that diagnose (3 when he got it). I think it's just more recognizeadle now.
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