Our Aspergers Teenage Boy

Tommy is grouchy. Wants to be left alone but I engaged and forced conversation. It’s exhausting and I think my wife finds it counterproductive but I believe he gets lessons from the interactions as long as they don’t turn into screaming battles. What’s the number? Is it 30,000? That is, the number of times something has to be repeated to become a habit.

The battles ensued. Tommy piqued and got disrespectful to his mother and I got firm with him and became “not nice” since we’ve been on his case about calling us “mean” everytime we have a confrontation.

Tommy a little jazzed. Sounds like he’s competing for attention and not trying hard to hold himself together.

Called his biological father 4 times today.

Tommy bathing which means he sits in the tub soaking for an hour then quickly rubs soap over himself and drips out.

Another interesting Tommyism is that he is so unaware of the things that go on around him that he won’t believe he was the one that left the puddle in the bathroom despite stepping out of the tub and standing there dripping. The other day we were driving and it was cold so when we got in the car his window instantly fogged; he didn’t notice until 20 minutes later when we pulled in the driveway and he had to open the door. He is frequently oblivious to the world around him which is why he walks into walls and trips over things so often.

Tommy picked up a pen and wrote a letter without any prompting! This is remarkable because Tommy HATES to write and asking him to do so almost always ends up involving tears. His Uncle Dean sent him some D&D maps and ideas and Tommy decided on his own to write Dean back. I am beyond thrilled. Since Tommy loves getting mail, we may have found a way to (1) get him to practice his handwriting and (2) get some of the thoughts out of his brain and onto paper. I am recruiting people to write him letters starting NOW!

* Tommy’s uncle sent him a D&D hand drawn map and Tommy is so thrilled that he’s skipping Simpsons to make his own map

Picked up Tommy’s generic Prozac. He had another day of mostly playing around at school. The school still has no intention of ever letting him out of the self-contained classroom. Tomorrow should be interesting. We are checking both Tommy and Sarah out of school early so that the two of them and their individual therapists can all meet together. Two doctors (who are practice partners of course), two patients.

Dad reports:
Picked up Tommy and mentioned that the bus people had not contacted us yet and the teacher said she’d look into it. Apparently he had a good day and they are trying to “slowly” get him into classes. Sounds to me like they are doing academics within the special setting and not mainstreaming into regular classes.

* Just as it was time to go, Tommy took his book into the bathroom and camped out. I gave him 10 minutes then reminded him not to take reading material into the bathroom [I wouldn't mind, I think its not a bad thing with those 8 minutes except that Tommy can turn it into a 30 minute or 2 hour session] His 20 mth old sister and I took him to school. He read silently the whole trip. This could either be a very good day or a Tommy refusing to do anything but read day.

Dad reports this morning:
* Tommy appears calm. I gave him his medicine at 7 instead of 6:30 and as I gave it too him I said “it’s breakfast time” and he proceeded to get out of bed. By the time I returned from carpool he had eatten and gotten dressed (minus deoderant because “I don’t know why mine is always disappearing” I did that taboo thing and let him use mine…yuck). I had to remind Tommy that we don’t play Gameboy or other video games before school and that reading should be appropriate not something like a comic. [this is for his own good so that he doesn't get over stimulated before going to school. The funny books get him laughing manically and its difficult for him to come down. The games get him a little aggitated and he becomes snappy.] He understood and took things well.
* Should be a good day.