Re: An interesting weekend...

[Guest guest]

Good luck with helping him understand that. My typical, very intelligent 11 yr old son still can't figure it out. LOL. He's really smart, but sometimes so dumb. And I'd never tell him that. I think some people's brains (on and off the spectrum) just work differently. They just don't get that things don't have to be literal. With my son (and I know it's different because he isn't on the spectrum) we just explain what it is. He usually gets it the first time. And it's funny to hear him try and use it later. It's alot better now, but when he was like 8 or 9 it was horrible. He's come home crying more than once because of something like the comment "boys are dumb".

Good luck.

An interesting weekend...

Well, as the subject suggests, our little family had a very interesting holiday weekend. It all started out fairly normal, for the holiday festivities... lunch at my sisters house with my family and then dinner with my husbands side of the family. Thanksgiving Day was pretty great. The kids did well, for the most part, especially considering that every year my husbands side seems to grow in numbers due to marriages and extended families. This certainly holds true for this year, as my hubby's grandmother remarried earlier this year and Thankdgiving was held at their (his) house and most of his family was there too. I was pleasently surprized that , my 7 year old Asperger child, did as well as he did. He didn't speak much to anyone he didn't know, but then he didn't go into any meltdowns either. He also refused to eat all day (we tried to take him foods we knew he would eat) until we returned home for the evening that is... then he pigged out.The interesting part comes in on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had a get-together with a bunch of friends (we have been around this group a lot in the last few months -- and all of them are aware of 's condition -- and are very willing to help in any way they can to make him feel comfortable, etc.) Now, most of us are in our mid-thirties, but there are a few people (maybe 2 or 3) that are in their early 20's. The first incident happened as a result of something a guy (in his 20's) said.My husband was pulled to the back room (a game room) by another one of the fathers in our group of friends. All of the kids were back there, and was in tears. NOw I don't mean that he was just crying, Big, crocodile tears were comming down his cheeks and he was Really upset. Now the first story we got, ALL of the kids said that this young man called both my boys stupid (my other son is 4 years old -- and he is the type kid that would tell someone that they are stupid back). to make a long story shorter, my husband had a talk with this young man and the young man said that he had been joking with the little girls and said in a joking manner "boys are stupid". Well, takes everything literally anyway. The young man did go and apologize to my boys for his comment and stopped crying. I don't really know which is the true story here, as all other adults were in another room.There is a question here, at the end... just bear with me a little bit longer...The second incident happened the next day... My husband told the kids to get ready... that we were going to Wal-Mart to do a little window shopping and then we would go and get dinner somewhere. (Can you tell where this is going yet???) looked right at him, with this quizical, innocent look on his face and asked why we needed new windows and followed that by what is wrong with the windows we already have?. My husband and I couldn't help but chuckle a little, but then explained to him what "window shopping" actually meant.Now, here's my question... I know that these incidents will come up more and more the older he gets... is there anything that I can do to help him understand NOW about figures of speech and how to tell if someone is saying something jokingly and when to take something serious??? I am one of those people, that if you put me on the spot and ask me for a figure of speech... I can't come up with one. The only one that usually comes to mind is "It's raining cats and dogs" which when first heard me say that he looked at me like I was the stupidest creature God put on the earth, but then once I explained it to him... Now he thinks it is kinda funny.Can anyone help with this... I mean what if he is at school or something and someone says something to him (jokingly) and it hurts his feelings again, and I or my husband are not there to help straighten out the situation.... Any suggestions would be helpful.Thanks in advance!Dani Marks, Mom to , 7 yr old w/ Aspergers, Hyperlexia, Sensory Integration Disorder and Sleep Disorder AND Austin, 4 yr old.