They say people with autism think in pictures instead of words....that their visual systems become stronger, possibly to compensate for the weaker language areas.
There's no doubt that those with Tommy's diagnosis (299 people, not Aspergers, not PDD-NOS, just the regular kind of autism) have unusual visual tendencies....
I'll never forget the day I really realized it was autism. It wasn't the wheel-spinning or the fact that every wheeled object we owned was turned upside-down in the backyard so he could go from wheel to wheel to spin them. It wasn't the lack of language. It wasn't the hand-flapping.
One day, I looked outside and he was running along the fence, staring at it out of the corner of his left eye. "Oh, crap, it's autism", I said. After that, he got into a habit of running around people's houses as fast as he could, always with the house on his left, looking at it out of the corner of that eye. I do bless my wonderful neighbors for their patience with that particular phase, which has ended, at least for now....they were new in the neighborhood at that time, and was a rather odd thing to have a little boy racing around their house repeatedly.
But the visual thing is also a joy for him. And I do love to see him take such pleasure in little visuals that we all take for granted every day. Like rain, for example.
We see the rain, we worry about the flooding, we watch the TV for the news.
But Tommy, laughs gleefully at EVERY downpour, amazed at how the drops fall, and I do believe he can see them all and hear EVERY ONE OF THEM hit the ground. Billions of reflective balls of his very, very favorite thing--WATER!!!
There is joy.
There's no doubt that those with Tommy's diagnosis (299 people, not Aspergers, not PDD-NOS, just the regular kind of autism) have unusual visual tendencies....
I'll never forget the day I really realized it was autism. It wasn't the wheel-spinning or the fact that every wheeled object we owned was turned upside-down in the backyard so he could go from wheel to wheel to spin them. It wasn't the lack of language. It wasn't the hand-flapping.
One day, I looked outside and he was running along the fence, staring at it out of the corner of his left eye. "Oh, crap, it's autism", I said. After that, he got into a habit of running around people's houses as fast as he could, always with the house on his left, looking at it out of the corner of that eye. I do bless my wonderful neighbors for their patience with that particular phase, which has ended, at least for now....they were new in the neighborhood at that time, and was a rather odd thing to have a little boy racing around their house repeatedly.
But the visual thing is also a joy for him. And I do love to see him take such pleasure in little visuals that we all take for granted every day. Like rain, for example.
We see the rain, we worry about the flooding, we watch the TV for the news.
But Tommy, laughs gleefully at EVERY downpour, amazed at how the drops fall, and I do believe he can see them all and hear EVERY ONE OF THEM hit the ground. Billions of reflective balls of his very, very favorite thing--WATER!!!
There is joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment