So Literal

Yesterday I was gathering up wet towels and suits from the living room floor after swimming lessons when I happened to notice Curly. He was sitting on the third stair. One step above him were three toys…a rag doll, a horse, and a dog. He was staring at them intently, first one and then the others in turn. I watched him for a moment. His small body was uncharacteristically motionless. Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are you doing?” I questioned. Without turning his head, he answered, “Crafty told me to watch these while she changed her clothes.”

We are SOO literal at our house! That’s what happens when you live with an autistic. My favorite story about that was when the Dog Walker was around eleven. He was on a pee-wee football team and it was before he came to love playing. His coach was our high school’s basketball coach, so he knew how to deal with kids…at least normal kids. The Dog Walker loved to tell this particular coach that he was “fired” whenever the coach had them do something hard. Well I guess one day the coach got a little tired of listening to one autistic boy and his method of grousing. To make matters worse, the Dog Walker was slacking and not making much effort.

The coach finally got up in his face (remember, autistics don’t like to make eye contact) and threatened, “If you don’t shut up and get moving, I’m going to make you run ‘til you die!” This may seem a little harsh to some of you, but for the Dog Walker, it was the motivation he needed to improve his attitude. He definitely didn’t want to die and since he didn’t understand the difference between real death and just wishing you were dead, he got moving! He still mumbled under his breath and occasionally “fired” the coach, but running was no longer a problem.