Sunday, January 12, 2014

My Kid Sucks At Puzzles...and other spectrumy things he doesn't like.

We've all heard the saying, "If you've met one child with autism...you've met one child with autism."  Still, it seems there are some common threads that bind our kids together, and it's so great to find another parent to whom you can say, "Your kid, too?!"  But there are some pieces that don't fit for us.

Puzzles.  My boy shows no interest.  He was all right with the wooden puzzles with individual pieces, but once those pieces had to fit with one another, he gave up.  Big Bro was a fan of those floor puzzles, so we have a lot.  I've tried to engage him--especially with the alphabet puzzle--because I want to provide some kind of structured activity at home, but he balks.  He barely looks at them, and then tries to mash the pieces to make them fit.

At one point, I actually said, "Dude!  Aren't you supposed to be good at this?"  Then I laughed and scolded myself, and poured a glass of wine.
 
I find it amusing that the puzzle piece is supposed to be the symbol of autism, and my kid hates them.  If I had to develop our own personalized symbol of autism awareness, it would be a decapitated Disney figure, but perhaps that's too macabre for the general public.  I doubt people would buy car magnets or get tattoos of something that looks like the work of Sid from Toy Story.

He's not that into trains.  He shows a mild interest.  He likes to watch the Thomas the Tank Engine video while jumping on a trampoline and shouting the names of all the trains, but that's about it.  He has a little wooden train set his therapist tries to get him to build for some functional play, but it's not a passion.
$6 ticket. He lasted 10 minutes. That's 60 cents/minute of fun!

There's a model train museum about 30 minutes from our house, and I'll take him from time to time.  Sometimes we'll stay for 10 minutes, sometimes longer.  The "museum" is in a little strip mall, and the owner has set up a really lovely display.  He also has religious showcases and anything else that strikes his fancy.  What I find hilarious about the whole situation is that this man, who is very nice, has absolutely no idea that he has built Autism Graceland.  When I take the boy in there, the only other people I see are other moms and other flapping boys.  And the owner tries very hard to encourage the kids to look at his display of bicentennial memorabilia, and seems a little confused by the jumping and humming and flapping.  He never says a word about it, though.  He's good people.

The boy doesn't like Legos, either.  I wish he did.  I wish he showed an interest in something other than breaking my house.

You know, I used to hear these stories of kids on the spectrum who obsessed over a certain toy or puzzle or collection or, I dunno, a pair of socks, and were absorbed for hours.  Understandably, their parents were concerned.  But I can't help feeling a teensy bit jealous.  My son has nothing that keeps him occupied for five minutes, let alone an hour or so.  I can barely imagine what it would be like to have time to pee by myself.

 


He doesn't line up his toys.  Like ever.

13 comments:

  1. I totally get this. My kid does not care about Minecraft or video games. It's like he didn't get the autism memo.

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  2. My kiddo hates puzzles too. Legos are come and go. Minecraft bores him now. He does line up his toys though. Must be he got part of the memo, lol

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  3. My son obsesses over trains, loves lego, but has flapped his hands MAYBE twice in his life... lol Everyone keeps asking about any savant skills. Nope. Not here. lol

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  4. Matthew isn't into Minecraft. He does not do puzzles and he does not do blocks of any kind. He does not do computers, games or otherwise, he doesn't give a flying fig for technology with the exception of his mp3 player, and he also has never grouped or lined up any of his cars or trains. Now give him Transformers, dominoes, and his talking Jesus doll and it's like a utopia for him! If he got the memo, he's ignored it!

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  5. It's always baffling to me as I never see two autistic kids that are alike. My Tanner definitely has a few similar characteristics listed in most books. For the most part he loves puzzles and anything with repetitive movements. Mostly he loves just repeating himself and driving his sisters crazy. He wants to do or be into anything that others are doing. The greatest thing about him is, it doesn't matter what problems arise in life, he has brought so much light into my life and made all problems seem very irrelevant. We could always be walking our lives in their shoes, which I think at times may be easier. They are all so special as well as the ones with the skills and patience to raise and guide them. Love the article!

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  6. I didn't know my kid was supposed to like trains! Gah, we suck at Autism and life! He does like Legos, though, so maybe we won't get voted off the island.

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  7. Man theresa vote..Crap better go pack now..My son got the memo memorized it then ate it..Lego's a definate video games oh yeah, flapping yep but not in years now..Thomas oh yeah did that to..Wait still have tracks and trains in a bucket in a closet of stuff i don't throw out cuz maybe someday when i have completly cracked I will remember them take them out and have 5 minutes of peace..Puzzels um no, coloring no, tying shoes at 13 um still no..

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  8. So funny :). Sophie is really good at being obsessed with Thomas. She doesn't really do any of the other autism requirements because all her waking moments are taken up by being obsessed with Thomas. She flaps sometimes when there's trouble on the island ;)

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  9. Another great post. People send me links to articles about ASD people with amazing abilities. I'm like, DD poops in her pull up at night and smears lotion on her bedroom window? Is that cool or what? Her thing is music toys. She's almost 11, and will pull us down the baby aisle to look at the toys every time.

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  10. My 9 year old just got diagnosed with aspergers. I haven't figured out what to do now, MY next step in my journey to find new ways to parent her now that I know... But I feel I must learn from other parents of kids on proverbial spectrums and this blog is a Hell of a good start!

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  11. oddlers love to put things in their mouth, so plastic is a great way to go. This Thomas the Train set includes a train, different track pieces, including a bridge, and a station. The train is also battery-run and talks when you press a button. http://toytraincenter.com/

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  12. Lol. You just wrote a blog about my son.

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