Autism and Laughter
Of course there’s nothing funny about autism…no one ever said there was, but just like any child, at times my 5-year-old son with autism can be quite funny–and that certainly makes those difficult times easier to swallow. Here are some of the things that make us laugh…
EATING: I wouldn’t say William is a picky eater. He certainly has foods that he likes more than others. At first he was picky towards certain colors or textures but somehow my amazing wife has managed to get him to eat all sorts of foods and vegetables. One funny thing that William (I call him Wiggy)…so one funny thing that Wiggy does when he eats oranges is that he HAS to put every peel in the trash after he’s finished.
What do I mean…imagine eating an orange slice. You bite into it, eat the pulp then have the peel remaining–so typically you’d put the peel on your plate and keep going. NOT WIGGY…call it quirky or whatever but it’s just funny because he will eat his orange slice then head right over the the trash, then come back and have another slice of orange.
Another funny thing he does when eating is that he will be so sneaky and will try and hide food or will try and throw it in the trash when we’re not looking. But as parents we always know what’s going on…so just watching him try and be so stealth and sneaky…and then we catch him and the game is up!
MUSIC: We try to listen to music in the home and in the car as much as possible…good tunes that the entire family enjoys. My son has a rather odd/funny pallet of musical tastes (he probably gets it from me). He LOVES Harry Connick Jr. He LOVES Pink Martini. He LOVES John Denver.
It’s just so funny when I’ll put on a different singer or even a different CD and he will (in mostly a good way) will let us know that he doesn’t want to hear that, he wants to hear what he wants!
GETTING IN THE CAR: We have two children so when I put them in their car seats I will let Wiggy climb in the car then his sister and I’ll go around to fasten the younger sister while he is fixing his seat belt. Once sister is safely fastened, I will go back around and finish buckling William…well he now knows and is able to close the car door and he knows I’m going to come back around and so he’ll quickly close the door and will hang on to it for dear life and make it hard for me to open the door.
These few instances might not seem very funny to most people…but they are to me and our family. It shows that “he’s in there”…he understands humor and being sneaky and doing things that make you laugh. I could get frustrated (and I do) with his behavior and holding the door closed on me or whatever…but he’s interacting with us…that’s a HUGE step!
He’s not going to be Rich Little or Jerry Seinfeld or a true comedian like that–but in his own funny/quirky/odd/beautiful way…my son is hilarious.
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I was going to suggest he try hiding food under his napkin, but that would be pointless because now you know about it. The food thing sounds normal to me.Of course he’s in there, of course he’s got a sense of humour and as time goes on, I believe, your worlds will overlap enough for things to get really funny.