Our Aspergers Teenage Boy

Dad reports:
Tommy came home laughing and bragging (talking before he entered the house) that he “sang loudly the whole way home on the bus.” Sounds like he is sucking in that negative attention he loves so much. He was quite proud of himself for acting so obnoxiously.

A New Day!

Dad reports this morning:
I made Tommy get up and come to the kitchen to take his medicine. Fortunately, he had no drink in his room so we was encouraged to do this. He has started the day off calm, alert and desiring to have a great day!

Dad reports:
According to Tommy he had a good day. He even dressed out for gym and changed back. Apparently he played football. I would have loved to have seen that! He says in English he only had to be spoke to 2 or 3 times (which probably means much more–his eyes did that lying tell that they do when there is more information that he isn’t divulging).

Now he and Mom are off to the mall to spend some of his birthday money.

Dad reports:
Thursday was a half day of school. Tommy’s first class was a 90 minute unstructured social opportunity. Tommy isolated himself in the room and read the Periodic Table of Elements over and over. Toward the end when he could not take it he was rocking and rattling desks for attention.

Friday was the first full day of school. Tommy’s English teacher explained that she had to interupt the 90 minute class 10 times to address Tommy’s behavior and needs. Tommy refused to dress out for gym until everyone left the locker room and the coach said, “you just won’t participate” then he went in a bathroom stall and changed. In both gym and his resource class Tommy chose to flip off other students. He explained that he was holding his ring finger behind his other hand to make it look like his middle finger (something elementary students would do) and we explained that didn’t matter. So much for first impressions.

Monday. Tommy claimed that “the kid in my class [resource] that gets in fights everyday punched a locker two inches in front of my face.” Tommy won’t make it through the first grading period without getting in a fist fight. So, does a dad that knows how to defend himself teach a child that doesn’t need fighting skills to fight?
Tommy picked up a desk and fully knowing the coinsequences asked his teacher, “what would happen if I threw this across the room?” Tommy is studying. Tommy is learning. Perhaps he is not studying and learning the right things but he is certainly learning something.

Tuesday. Tommy pretends to sleep through English and gets kicked out of gym early.

Tommy is almost artist in the way he tests boundaries and learns people’s weaknesses so quickly.

Dad reports:

Dad reports:
Tommy is developing a bad morning routine. He is getting up relatively without agrument , getting dressed, having breakfast then settling in for some calm reading.

I drive the siblings to the bus stop and sometimes when I see his bus I call a warning down to the house (and sometimes I don’t). Regardless, despite his mother’s pleadings to go to the curb, Tommy waits until the bus pulls in front of the house. His eyes glaze over. He reads a little more to find the proverbial perfect stopping place (realize sometimes this means he just reads the same paragraph repeatedly). He then stands, stretches and in slow motion goes to his room instead of the front door. Still with glazed eyes, he begins trying to fill his pockets with junk while his mother takes everything away and begs him to go outside. Pulling on him makes him anchor his 206 pounds (93.4 kg) of mass to the floor and grunt at you. When he is ready to give in he shouts, “Alright!” then in that same slow motion heads to the door. Out the door its a race between Tommy and a slug to see who can take the longest to get to the bus. Tommy wins of course. No slug has that much patience.

Our action to change this: We will put a lock on his door. When he leaves his room in the morning for breakfast the door will be locked. If he “needs” anything from his room, which he should not because everything is already out, then an adult will go in and get it for him. His doctor has already recommended the lock to help stop the midnight wandering and snacking. When we start this I expect that there will be morning anger that will wake the toddler and the neighbors.

A New Day!

Dad reports this morning:
I thought I had Tommy when I made him walk to the kitchen to take his medicine. He still went right back to bed.

Dad reports:
Tommy takes the puppy over to one of the neighbor’s houses. It pees outside and then they go inside. Tommy declares, “It’s ok if the dog pees inside at our house.” The neighbor revoltedly exclaims, “Not in mine!”

I would like to clear up that it is NOT ok for the dog to pee inside.

Dad reports:
Tommy got into bed on time this evening (maybe even a little early). That still didn’t stop him from being up at 11:15pm. Perhaps he just got up to go to the bathroom but I suspect that noise I hear upstairs is Tommy stimming himself to stay awake.

A New Day!

Dad reports this morning:
Tommy went to school angry and tired. I called to warn them that the bus had turned into the neighborhood. Instead of heading to the street, Tommy went to his room and began looking for things to take to school. This of course included yelling at his mother because the Dune library book that he picked up last night was too large for his bag.

Tommy was prileged to stay up until 9pm playing Risk with me. While he allowed him to finish his last piece of birthday cake the time extended to 9:10pm. He stalled until 9:23 when we started to get angry. At 11pm he came down to complain that he could not get to sleep. At 1:15am I checked on him but he didn’t appear to be in that deep sleep state and although I could not be sure he seemed to be faking sleep. At 4:15am he again still looked to be faking. At 6:30am he was definitely asleep but it was time to rise. At 7am he was still in bed. At 7:05 he finally sat up.

I anxiously await the call from the school saying, “come get Tommy.”