Sometimes when I tell people my son has autism, they immediately think of Rainman. They ask if he could count toothpicks when they spill on the ground, or if he could count cards, or whether he is an "excellent driver" (smile)
Rainman is considered a savant and it is a very rare form of autism. The movie was written about a real young man, but that condition is rare. Although Rainman did serve to bring awareness to autism ( and this was before the autism explosion) I think sometimes it gives people a distorted view of the autistic mind. I usually tell people that Zach has none of the characteristics of Rainman, and then it gets hard to explain exactly what autism is and how it affects children.
I notice though that as Zach gets older he is very aware of changes in his environment at home. He can walk in the house and notice immediately if something is missing. It's usually something that we would think was insignificant, such as a key chain that is usually on the coffee table or something as trivial a pair of scissors that are usually laying on the coffee table. As soon as he comes home from school he walks in the living room and immediately demands his ipod, ( the one he throws in my purse every morning when he runs out of the shower nude) even though he doesn't use this one he demands it back and plugs it into the computer where it will charge all night. He then scours the coffee table for the remote controls, There are four of them and if they are not within his sight he will start giving me the sign that something is missing, and we have to find all of the remotes and put them together on the table. Most of these little quirks revolve around our coffee table. He has two little baskets of electronic toys on the table such as a Bop it ,hand held Simon, hand held Poker, little portable radios, and lots and lots of headphones. These two little baskets are his world and I would NEVER EVER mess with them. I don't care how messy they make the room look or how unorganized they are, I respect those baskets as his "junk drawer". I have always had junk drawers and as many times as I try, I can never throw anything out of them, I mean who knows when you might need to use that little roll of measuring tape, or the tiny screwdriver key chain, or the cool looking ink pen that no longer works, the half full box of birthday candles, the Santa clause pin that you will wear when Christmas comes. You get the idea. I think we all have them and Zach is no exception. So this is as off limits to me as a diary would be to a young girl. I didn't realize that his bed room held the same allure.
So one night Ron and I are sitting in the living room watching TV and we begin to hear a ruckus upstairs that sounded like a herd of elephants. We looked at each other and said "what the hell is going on?" so we run upstairs and Zach is in his room frantic. He is pulling all of his toys ( that he never plays with) off of his shelf in his closet, he has his books ( we kept every book he ever had since he was a baby) strewn all over the floor he is in total panic mode crying, shaking and signing "book". I was very confused and I hate to see him in that kind of agitated state. The fact that he is non-verbal can be very frustrating for him when something is bothering him. I can only describe his state of mind as fight or flight, he was absolutely beside himself, frantically emptying out his dresser drawers, pulling his mattress off the frame and looking under it. He was jumping up and down so hard I thought the floor was going to cave in, meanwhile making the sign for "book" "book" "book". Ron and I are saying " Zach look here are your books, what is the problem?" but he was not satisfied. I was desperate and I called my mother, because sometimes when I was at work my mom would wait at my house for Zach to get home from school and while she was waiting ( bless her heart) she would straighten up the house and put a basket of clean laundry away, do up my dishes, throw a load in the washer or whatever she could do to help. So I call her on her cell phone and I thank God she answered. I said "Mom Zach is busting a spring here in his room and signing book over and over, I don't know what to do, do you know anything about why he might be doing this?" She got very quiet for a minute and at first she said "No" then she said " Oh my God, I took a couple of those old baby books today to give to your Aunt Ruthie's new granddaughter" She said "Lesa those books were in stacks all over his bedroom I only took about three of them there is no way he could know they were missing" So I held the phone out to let her hear his frantic panic and anxiety attack, while he was still tearing his room to shreds. My Mom happened to be out shopping with my sister-in-law in Wilkes Barre at the time, so she had to call my aunt Ruthie to find out if she still had the books or if she had given them to her granddaughter Maggie. Luckily Ruthie still had the books, so my mom had to leave the store, drive to Edwardsville pick up the books and bring them to my house. How did this boy walk into his room, take one look at the hundreds of books that were stacked all over his room and immediately realize that three were missing? It was quite an eye opening experience. We all have a little Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after THAT episode. I admit I was in awe of his ability to be able to do that, and maybe he does have a little bit of Rainman in him after all. My poor Mom felt so guilty, who would have known? Once she brought the books back, Zach immediately calmed down, he began smiling and everything was right in his little world again.
Rainman is considered a savant and it is a very rare form of autism. The movie was written about a real young man, but that condition is rare. Although Rainman did serve to bring awareness to autism ( and this was before the autism explosion) I think sometimes it gives people a distorted view of the autistic mind. I usually tell people that Zach has none of the characteristics of Rainman, and then it gets hard to explain exactly what autism is and how it affects children.
I notice though that as Zach gets older he is very aware of changes in his environment at home. He can walk in the house and notice immediately if something is missing. It's usually something that we would think was insignificant, such as a key chain that is usually on the coffee table or something as trivial a pair of scissors that are usually laying on the coffee table. As soon as he comes home from school he walks in the living room and immediately demands his ipod, ( the one he throws in my purse every morning when he runs out of the shower nude) even though he doesn't use this one he demands it back and plugs it into the computer where it will charge all night. He then scours the coffee table for the remote controls, There are four of them and if they are not within his sight he will start giving me the sign that something is missing, and we have to find all of the remotes and put them together on the table. Most of these little quirks revolve around our coffee table. He has two little baskets of electronic toys on the table such as a Bop it ,hand held Simon, hand held Poker, little portable radios, and lots and lots of headphones. These two little baskets are his world and I would NEVER EVER mess with them. I don't care how messy they make the room look or how unorganized they are, I respect those baskets as his "junk drawer". I have always had junk drawers and as many times as I try, I can never throw anything out of them, I mean who knows when you might need to use that little roll of measuring tape, or the tiny screwdriver key chain, or the cool looking ink pen that no longer works, the half full box of birthday candles, the Santa clause pin that you will wear when Christmas comes. You get the idea. I think we all have them and Zach is no exception. So this is as off limits to me as a diary would be to a young girl. I didn't realize that his bed room held the same allure.
So one night Ron and I are sitting in the living room watching TV and we begin to hear a ruckus upstairs that sounded like a herd of elephants. We looked at each other and said "what the hell is going on?" so we run upstairs and Zach is in his room frantic. He is pulling all of his toys ( that he never plays with) off of his shelf in his closet, he has his books ( we kept every book he ever had since he was a baby) strewn all over the floor he is in total panic mode crying, shaking and signing "book". I was very confused and I hate to see him in that kind of agitated state. The fact that he is non-verbal can be very frustrating for him when something is bothering him. I can only describe his state of mind as fight or flight, he was absolutely beside himself, frantically emptying out his dresser drawers, pulling his mattress off the frame and looking under it. He was jumping up and down so hard I thought the floor was going to cave in, meanwhile making the sign for "book" "book" "book". Ron and I are saying " Zach look here are your books, what is the problem?" but he was not satisfied. I was desperate and I called my mother, because sometimes when I was at work my mom would wait at my house for Zach to get home from school and while she was waiting ( bless her heart) she would straighten up the house and put a basket of clean laundry away, do up my dishes, throw a load in the washer or whatever she could do to help. So I call her on her cell phone and I thank God she answered. I said "Mom Zach is busting a spring here in his room and signing book over and over, I don't know what to do, do you know anything about why he might be doing this?" She got very quiet for a minute and at first she said "No" then she said " Oh my God, I took a couple of those old baby books today to give to your Aunt Ruthie's new granddaughter" She said "Lesa those books were in stacks all over his bedroom I only took about three of them there is no way he could know they were missing" So I held the phone out to let her hear his frantic panic and anxiety attack, while he was still tearing his room to shreds. My Mom happened to be out shopping with my sister-in-law in Wilkes Barre at the time, so she had to call my aunt Ruthie to find out if she still had the books or if she had given them to her granddaughter Maggie. Luckily Ruthie still had the books, so my mom had to leave the store, drive to Edwardsville pick up the books and bring them to my house. How did this boy walk into his room, take one look at the hundreds of books that were stacked all over his room and immediately realize that three were missing? It was quite an eye opening experience. We all have a little Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after THAT episode. I admit I was in awe of his ability to be able to do that, and maybe he does have a little bit of Rainman in him after all. My poor Mom felt so guilty, who would have known? Once she brought the books back, Zach immediately calmed down, he began smiling and everything was right in his little world again.
1 comment:
yes, I was guilty! took the books innocently never thinking Zach would miss them. Ilearned a lesson that day, don't underestimate the power of Zach's inventory! I needed to RESPECT his things!
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