Charlie's latest obsession

[Guest guest]

And maybe a little insight into this combination of Ds and autism.

Another reason why we shouldn't have been as surprised as we were when

handed the additional dx of autistic spectrum disorder a few years ago

is that Charlie has for a long time exhibited some obsessive,

repetitive, ritual behaviors.

First one I recall was these musical stacking toys. Charlie never had

any use for the stacking rings. Would dump them immediately. Then he

would turn the toy upside down to press its activation button against

the floor, starting up the music and flashing lights, and then rock back

and forth while holding toy to his ear. Very content to sit by the patio

doors and do that for hours. And sometimes we'd let him, probably

shouldn't have. But, hey, what were we going to do? Say stop that

rocking with your stacking toy and go study calculus.

I think he wore out a half dozen of those toys. And he was none too

happy when one would stop working.

Eventually the stackers gave way to talking Barney. This is progress. At

least Barney, however irritating he may be, is a representation of

something animate. Suspect Charlie still has better eye contact with

Barney than he does with me.

Lots of kids are very entertained by and engaged with videos. For a long

time, Charlie was not. Would sort of watch Sesame Street while having

breakfast, but not all that taken in, with, by it. May be in part a

vision thing, still not sure about what Charlie can see nor how well he

can see it.

Ah, further development, for the past several months Charlie has been

much enamored of Bob the Builder, tv show, tapes, dvd's, dvd's on the

tv, or player, or computer. Someone else sit at the computer to do

something, like check email, other than watch a Bob the Builder dvd and

Charlie would come up to their shoulder and start fussing. Will still go

out by sliders to the patio and pick up Barney to complain to him in

various yelps, screeches, mutterings about not getting to watch B the B.

But B the B has clearly put Barney out to pasture, so to speak.

So, joint birthday celebration with his 4-year junior brother on

Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese's, Charlie found a ride much to his liking.

Here's a 1 min. 45 sec. clip,

No idea what next step is. I thought little brother was going to teach

him to talk. Now, last time I checked with them, not so sure. School has

been working with a yes/no switch. That would be good and useful. But

maybe Charlie will take up email. Probably not, probably beyond him. But

that could be very good, that could work, though Charlie would probably

insist on emailing us in Sanskrit or some such.

His humble father,

Bob