A few weeks back J started repeating the same boys names over and over again.
I would repeat it back to him to placate him but was intrigued as to who these boys were.
I asked at school and was told there were no children with those names either in his class or in the entire school, including any male members of staff.
A suggestion was put to me that he must have heard it from a television programme, but as I know pretty much every programme he watches I was not convinced.
Well, J had a stash of old photos in a scrapbook that was given to him from his first school he attended before we moved to this new area. One day when making his bed I found an A4 sheet of paper which had five boys photos on with their names underneath and realised these were his old class mates from that school. And there were two of these boys!
Mystery solved.
But what a memory for going back four years. At such a young age our memories are not that good in storing this kind of information, so to see him reel off each of the boys names as I pointed to them (he knew all five by name when I asked) was amazing.
One little boy though, quite sadly, passed away in January of 2009 from a brain tumour. He was only a few months older than J and his mother was (understandably) devastated.
He was very very similar to J in abilities and speech and it hit me hard too as I imagined the pain and suffering he went through and how it was too late for them to do anything for him as he could'nt tell them he had a headache and it was only by her pushing her GP that something just was'nt right with him that they did some tests and six weeks later he died in a hospice.
He was a lovely boy. Made me smile with his mannerisms and innocence. I still think of him a lot and it does bother me that it could all too easily happen to J, or something similar. God Bless you little I.x
J's memory spans lots of things though. I am sure if I drove back along the motorway he would recognise we were going back to our old house. He remembers his Grandma (well my Grandma really, his Great Grandma) and Grandad. If we are driving over towards were they used to live he starts getting excited and asking for the red cup ( they had a tall plastic red cup he loved to hold and fill with water). Even though Grandma passed in September 2006 (when O was a baby) and Grandad in December (few days before Chrsitmas) 2007, he still remembers them and their house.
I presume because his verbal skills and understanding are limited he makes up for it with his eyes and stores information away for future reference. I still know he is no-where near being a savant but so what? I have a little phrase I love - ' my son has autism - no he is not like Rainman'!
The reference to Rainman is because of the film where the character Rainman is a savant and so people who have only heard of autism via this film make presumptions that this is the only type of autism. Watch them get confused when you mention 'umbrella's and 'spectrums'! What does an umbrella have to do with a mental disability is the usual furrowed brow expression I receive!
Well I could'nt be all doom and gloom could I? Life is too short and I want to enjoy it in our very own special way.
