The Language of Autism

Autism is a unique affliction; it runs the gamet from causing mild speech delays to near total incapacitation, which is why it's called a Spectrum disorder. Children with a diagnosis of Autism are some where on this spectrum, and how they are affected can be amazing, and frustrating, and incomprehensible all at the same time.

Yesterday Jake and I took a trip to the grocery store. Jakey loves the store - he loves to "talk to the peoples" and look at all the stuff on the shelves and, well, SHOP! Although he's nearly six and weighs 55 lbs, Jake has just progressed to the point (within the last two months) where he can walk along with me instead of riding in the cart. Since he's started walking he rarely wants to ride any more, but yesterday the cool red race car shopping cart caught his eye and he wanted to hop in.

Our store has groceries on one side, and house wares, home and garden, etc. on the other side. As we walked in, I started to turn right to go to the garden center, and Jake said “NO, lets go that way!” pointing to the left toward the food. I said we would have to go to the garden center first.

After we finished in the garden center, we started heading over to the grocery section and I headed down the aisles which run north to south. Every time we'd turn down the east-west aisle, he'd say "almost there...a little more..." He did this for six aisles. "Almost there...a little more..." Finally we turned down the cereal aisle, and he said, “That one! That one!” and he pointed down the aisle which has the typical 1000 different cereals. I started walking toward his very emphatic pointing, and about half way down the aisle we got to the Apple Jacks. Jake has never had Apple Jacks, and since he has extreme food sensitivities to the point of choking and gagging on new things, I tend not to buy him stuff that he hasn't had. But Jake was adamant; "That one," he said, “I want that one!” I said, “Are you sure?? Because if I buy it you have to eat it.” “YES! YES! I want that one! It has game! That's cimmaninon (which is how he pronounces cinnamon)!” So I said OK, although I wasn't quite sure what "game" had to do with cinnamon. As I started to put the box in the cart Jake said, “NO! Jake box! JAKE BOX” so I turned it over to him.

Jake held the box the entire time we were in the store. Autistic kids will often grab on to something and seem to become obsessed with it - it could be a block or a crayon or a cereal box.
Usually when we are at the store, Jake will say "Hi!" to everyone that walks past him. Then each time he says "Hi!" he says to me, "I'm talking to the people!" It's thrilling for both of us on different levels, but for me it's really wonderful for two reasons - he is using the word "I", which took him a long time to master, and he is focusing on the people around him instead of his internal world. But there would be no saying "Hi" to the people yesterday, because Jake now had a cereal box! As we continued our shopping he was talking to the box, and I kept hearing "cinnamon game." I was distracted so I didn't stop and ask him what he was talking about , but just continued on to the checkout.

When we go to the checkout Jake put his box on the counter for the man to scan. The man looked at Jake and said, "Hi! How are you today?" and Jake replied, "I'm Jake!" And that's how this disease works - pleasantries that most children learn by the age of three can be lost on a person with Autism for years or even a lifetime.

We finished checking out and headed out to the truck, with Jake smiling and holding his box of Apple Jacks. After we got home Jake helped me carry everything in and then retired to his room for some quiet time. Although he loves to go out, anytime he is around people, lights, sounds and new sights, he needs some quite alone time to come down.

Some time later I was relaxing and I heard him opening something. “What are you doing? ” I asked. With that question he came running down the stairs yelling, “WATCH! I got WATCH GAME!” So I looked at what he was handing me, and sure enough, it was an XBox game that you wear on your wrist like a watch. I took a brief look at it (it looked HARD) and I asked him if he wanted to put it on. "Yes! YES YES!" So I put it on him and turned it on, and figured he'd break it in an hour or so and that would be the end of that. Imagine my surprise when 45 minutes later I went upstairs to check on him and he was on my bed, playing that game. PLAYING IT. He figured out all the buttons, what to do, everything.

I really shouldn't have been surprised, as he has several gifts that are in direct opposition to what the Autism brings us, but I think the dichotomy catches me off guard every time. How is it that he can't answer the question "how are you," but he can play musical instruments, do simple math, and figure out how to play a video game that has complex movements in 20 minutes? It's a strange, strange affliction this Autism; it's a terrible, wonderful thing.

Oh, and by the way - he did eat the Apple Jacks - and asked for seconds!