Like all kids Turkey has his quirks, Asperger's related or not. One his most enduring yet annoying quirks is an Aspie thing.
People with Asperger's take things very literally. If you tell Turkey you are coming over at 5pm, you better not mean 5:15. If you tell Turkey he has 5 more minutes of TV till bath time, you better mean 5 minutes, not 4. To him "a couple of minutes" means exactly that - two minutes.
He does have some flexibility, but only when it comes to something he really loves. He will forgive you if you say you will be there at 5 and show up at 4:45, and he will forgive you if you let him watch 10 more minutes of TV instead of 5 minutes. But don't try to be late or "rip him off" (his words not mine), he'll let you know.
He counts time. I constantly find myself telling him I will give him a back-rub for a "few minutes" before bed, to him this is 3 minutes. As I am rubbing his back he is counting to himself the minutes "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3Mississippi, ..." You get the idea. When I stop early he'll let me know, "Mom you only rubbed my back for 124 seconds, that's only 2 minutes and 4 seconds, you promised 3 minutes." Thanks for the reminder kid.
The timer and clock have become our best friends to transition him from one activity to the next. Now if only Husband and I would speak more literally in regards to time, we'd be all set.
Wednesday, June 1
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
This is what tandem nursing looks like. You see that calm and relaxed look on my face - that's all the oxytocin being release... -
Don't take this post as a political statement, I'm just sharing a funny mommy moment. While driving with Turkey this morning we w... -
This funny little cartoon has been making the rounds on Facebook for a little while now... I've even posted it to my wall, and personal...
2 comments:
I can see the pros and cons to having a child with that trait. Your stories are so cute though. My husband and I also have time communication issues. Uhg.
Awesome! I used to babysit for a kid with high-level autism and he was very similar, haha. I remember how excited his Mom was when he learned to lie at the age of 8 or 9, haha. Before that he didn't realize it was possible to say something that wasn't true . . . ;-)
Post a Comment