Pokemon, Lego & Percy Jackson

What are your child's special interests? This question I am so often asked by the professionals makes me want to laugh.

I think back to Barney's very first evaluation done by the early intervention team when he was 2.5.  The team had just diagnosed him with Sensory Processing Disorder and a delay in pragmatic language.  Given my own teaching experience and M.Ed. in SPED, the pragmatics issue set off warning bells. So I asked them, "Is this what Asperger's looks like in toddlers?"  I was assured in no uncertain terms that he had such a wide range of interests and abilities he could not possibly be on the spectrum. Looking around our playroom they identified the play kitchen, train table (Thomas, of course),  Duplo building toys, stuffed animals, puzzles, variety of books and games that Barney enjoyed with equal enthusiasm. I was told that when they go into a house and see only one theme reflected ( Barney, Elmo, Thomas, etc.) that's an indication of spectrum behavior, but I didn't need to worry. Barney loved fire trucks, The Backyardigans, making block towers, cooking pretend food, numbers and letters, being read to and the color green.

I was relieved.  I threw myself into learning everything I could about SPD. The Out of Sync Child became my bible and  we turned our basement into a sensory gym. We had a plastic slide in the yard which I cleaned up and brought inside.  We got a mini-trampoline, a hoppity ball, a scooter board, a cheap exercise ball and gave him the space to run, jump, crash and fill his sensory needs. He was only 2 and everything I read told me I had until his 5th birthday to change his brain patterns and dammit, that's what I was going to do!

Despite the intensive OT, both at home and privately with a therapist, Barney's problems did not go away.  They changed, some things becoming easier for him and other things harder. In preschool he crashed into anything and everything, knocking over block buildings, dumping baskets of toys, and pushing kids out of his way even at the top of the slide. At 4, it was recommended that we take him for a full Neuro-Psych evaluation.  Of course there was a long waiting list and it took about 7 months to get in.

The Neuro-Psych results indicated a superior IQ, serious sensory issues, attentional issues, ocd tendencies and generalized anxiety. I asked the team, where does he fall on the autism spectrum?  Huh?  They were shocked by my question!  Parents don't ask for spectrum a diagnosis! Once again I was told that Barney had deficits but his strengths were so broad and well rounded that they had no indication that he was on the spectrum.

At that point in time he loved pirates, Little Einsteins, reading anything he could get his hands on, singing and putting on shows, catching bugs and the color green.  His classmates were into Super Heroes which wasn't his thing so he asked me to take him to the library so he could check out some books and teach himself  enough back story to participate in the games at school. The evaluators told me that spectrum kids don't do things like that. Again I felt relief.  When I presented the Neuro-Psych report at the Kindergarten transition meeting I proudly stated, "He's NOT Autistic."

Today Barney still loves to read and be read to.  In school he's reading Harry Potter in his free time, currently on Goblet of Fire.  At home he's reading Percy Jackson and just started The Last Olympian. He loves to build with Lego and is working on his Ninjago collection. He collects Pokemon cards, favors Pokemon ds games and can rattle off facts ad nauseum. In his free time he's teaching himself square roots and long division. Over the weekend he built a catapult out of wood, just for fun. He's also teaching himself to play the drums.  Guess what?  This is what Autism looks like in our house.  Oh, and he still loves the color green.

A Series of Expected Events

One of Barney's special interests this academic year has been the books by Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events. There are 13 books in the series and Barney decided the first week of school that these books would be his independent reading material for second grade. Given how easy the class work is for him and how uncomfortable he is socially, he can easily polish off one chapter book per week reading during his extra time at school.

Barney spent more time outside of the classroom than in it during the month of September. His agitation regarding the "baby work" made it virtually impossible to control his outbursts.  In an attempt to protect Barney socially, he was removed from the classroom any time his behavior made the other students uncomfortable. As a result, he spent a good deal of time sitting in empty offices and conference rooms. The school administration finally figured out that if he was allowed to read, he calmed down much more quickly. They decided to let him read for 15-20 minutes before engaging him in conversation and it was successful.

In less than a week Barney had regaled the principal, assistant principal, SLP, adjustment counselor, BCBA, nurse, secretaries and anyone else who would listen with plot summaries and character lists from the Series of Unfortunate Events books. The whole school knew what Barney was reading and how passionately he felt about the books.

My husband and I met with the TEAM last Friday to discuss the plans for behavioral interventions. The decision had been made to implement a Michelle Garcia Winner social thinking type model of clearly stated expected behavior.  The plan was well thought out and clearly had taken time and effort from all members of his school team. I felt like they "got it" and were willing to do what it takes to make their school the right place for my kid. They titled the plan: A Series of Expected Events. I couldn't ask for more.