Everyone in our family has some sort of quirky talent.
I for example have an inane ability to name any movie I’ve seen since the age of 8 and tell you the name and/or location of the movie theatre I saw it in AND whom I saw it with. I know…completely useless. I also have the ability to think of a random feature film, and within 7 days, said feature film will air on TBS and/or TNT.
Rashele has an uncanny ability to read my mind. Within seconds of me thinking even the most remote, random thought Rashele will ask me something on that very subject. She truly creeps me out sometimes and I’m convinced that somehow she’s implanted some unknown alien mind-reading technology in my brain while I slept.
Kyler can flip his tongue upside down, both to the left, and to the right. I’ve been told only 1 in 1000 can do it.
Claire-Marie has the weird eyebrow arching thing she does, and she can belch louder than any 7 year old girl should. Crazy.
Mason however has the oddest, yet most amazing talent. Claire-Marie named it perfectly over the past Christmas holidays. While riding in the car with my brother and his wife she commented to them.... "You know those digital things that you can have in your car that tell you which way to drive?"
My brother replied, "You mean a GPS?"
"Yes", Claire-Marie said, "A GPS, we have one, we call him Mason"
In our family he is known as The Human GPS.
We noticed years ago shortly after his diagnosis, that he has an uncanny sense of direction.
At age 3, days before the school year started we attended the open house of the school that he would be attending in our local district. The school, 20 minutes from our home, was a myriad of twists and turns and a difficult route for any child of his age to memorize.
But memorize he did.
On the first day of school, a few days after our open house visit we made our way towards school to drop him off on his first official day. As I approached the final right turn still 1.5 miles away from the school driveway I turned on my right blinker.
NO!
NO!
NO!
(One of the few words he spoke at the time)
He knew exactly where we were headed and he was already digging his heels in.
Left at the stop sign
NO!
NO!
NO!
Heels dug deeper.
Rashele and I looked at each other incredulous, not comprehending how on earth he knew where we were going when he’d only been to this building one time previously. Surely his memory couldn’t be that good, could it?
It was.
Since that fateful day we’ve realized that Mason never gets lost. He knows the location of every railroad crossing w/in a 10 mile radius of our house. He knows that if we are at the corner of University Ave and I-30 in Fort Worth, 60 miles from our home in Frisco, that we’re only a few blocks from the Fort Worth Zoo. A place we visit maybe twice a year.
Currently our daily routine at the end of the school day is to allow Mason to give exact turn by turn directions from his school to our driveway.
I learned last week if he says RIGHT to turn right, even if by doing so I know I’m going the long way. To disobey his order will cause a massive 1 hour meltdown (as I learned last Wednesday)
While I’m still learning everyday how his brain works I’ve realized that I can’t ever take for granted those “quirks” he has.
They are what makes Mason, Mason
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MAD AS HELL
For lack of a better sentiment right now I have to say it. MAD AS HELL! My son was diagnosed with Autism on December 15th 2007. So I am still raw to this news. I am going through the stages of grief. I seem to keep coming back to the angry one. My son has been taken away from me. He is a wonderful little boy with all kinds of sweet characteristics and interesting abilities but what I thought he was going to be and what I have been told he is are not in line with one another. In a little over a month I have buried my son in my mind and rebuilt the new son I have been told I have. I have been to meetings to acess what his immediate needs are and have tried in vain to find treatment in my area that would meet what I have been told he has to have.
I have been reduced to enrolling him in a county pre-school classroom that I don't like because something is better than nothing according to my entire family, and all the "experts". I have had to listen to experts, family members and outsiders give me words of support like "remember Beethovan ( spelling?) and Van Gogh were Autistic, and many doctors are Autistic. Don't worry he is going to be fine. Don't count him out yet... I want to tell them all to shut up. Beethovan and Van Gogh? are they serious? Are their heads shoved so far up thier ....that they cannot see the obvious injustice and outrageous tragedy that has befallen our son and our family?
As I see it there are two camps in the trying to deal with the autism diagnosis group. First there are the people that imbrace the diagnosis after the initial devestating blow from the diagnostician, which I think we can all agree no one stood up and said "Thank God my son or daughter has Autism! I was worried he or she would experience life without extra challenges!!!" These are the parents and care givers that after the dust has settled start to look at thier son or daughters autism as a gift and embrace it for what it is... I can understand this from a psychological perspcective because I think in a flight or fight senario these are the birds of flight. I don't think they have the emotional resources to fight the why this happened to their child. I don't fault these people for this reaction I completely understand it... especially in light of many Adults with Autism standing up and trying to explain how they don't look at thier austim as a curse.
My Anger and Fight comes from the statistics. 1 in 150 children ! HONESTLY!!! HOLY SHIT!!!! OH MY GOD!!! What? twenty years ago it was 1 in 10,000? Come again??? This to me is almost impossible to digest and makes me physically sick when I really think about it.
I have heard the arguements that it is just better diagnosing tools helping us to pinpoint this population or that it is the pollution and heavy metals that our children are exposed to now, or the shots,. Whatever the hell it is besides the better diagnosing which I personally believe is a crock, why aren't we angry villagers with torches storming the gates? Are we going to wait until all the children of the world have Autism? because at the current rate it won't be long before that happens. WHO OR WHAT IS DOING THIS TO OUR CHILDREN??????? WHY AREN'T THE PRESIDENTAL HOPEFULS SCREAMING THIS ISSUE FROM THE PODIUMS AND DEMANDING ANSWERS? More children have had thier potential for a "normal" life taken away from them in the last twenty years if the statistics are correct than have been injured in all the wars combined in the last twenty years. More children are suffering from this Disorder than from Diabetes and yet I see more news coverage on childhood diabetes than this. What if 1 in 150 children were currently being diagnosed with schizophrenia or god forbid AIDES? I realize that AIDES is a life threating disease and therefore not a great analogy but the long term care associated with Aides patients in america is much less becasue, for lack of a better way to put this, they die. What does the government or we as a society think we are going to do to accomidate all of these children as they grow up?
I am angry, exhausted, outraged and MAD AS HELL.
MAD AS HELL
Hi AngryParent
I remember well those days. I don't have them as often, but they do still creep up from time to time.
Tell me about your son. How old is he?
What signs did you see?
What therapies have you started?
Joey
Not angry
Joey, my son used to say "Nooooooo" too, but now he's also saying "Wrong Way!" I don't know where he learnt that one, but it's always great to hear new words coming from him.
"Mad as Hell", I cannot relate to feelings of anger, because my son's autism is nobody's fault. I'm positive he was born with it. The same way there are thousands of genetic defects that may happen to a human being (whatever the cause is, purely family history or environmental insult during pregnancy or just a malformation of the embryo) autism can appear in a family. There are many genetic diseases in which the onset only happens later in life. In autism, it happens between 1 or 2 years of age.
The thing is, when you decide to get pregnant, you need to know there is a risk that your child will not be perfect. A healthy child can never be taken for granted. So if it turns out that you gave birth to a handicapped child, can you really say that was absolutely impossible??? No. And, the minute this child is born, he is your responsibility, he's yours to love, regardless of how imperfect he is. That's why these children need acceptance.
I mean, we gave birth to autistic children. My friend had a Down Syndrome girl that same year... My other friend lost her baby mid-pregnancy because he was born with some type of leak in his brain that eventually killed him. We were all happy, healthy, conscious pregnant women who did everything right... Sometimes we just don't get what we were expecting. Welcome to adult life.
Do I feel blessed that I have an autistic child? Yes. Do I feel unlucky too? Yes. But hey, we got put on this wild ride against our will, but since we're there we might as well enjoy it the best way we can.
You don't need to expect your son to become a genius. But you really can't count him out yet. He might grow up to be a good person, a great son to you.
I understand that at time of diagnosis they only point out the negative sides of your child (to justify the diagnosis) and that leads to despair and hopelessness. With time, you'll learn to look at your kid and see his bright side, his gifts, his own personality.