And who said Autists don't have any sense of humour... Our 'Bob' doesn't set out to
be funny, and he's far from the class clown. I’d like to say he was a prankster
but that would mean he planned what he was doing and more often than not it simply
happens! It can be strangely humorous when it does. I'd like to believe
that there is a funny button in his brain which gets switched on in very much
the same manner as is the compulsion to press the red buttons; There is no plan
and it usually occurs without any warm up!
When I look back he's been doing it most
of his life and it wasn’t until he was older it became more obvious. Our
'Bob' does love a giggle but his funniest moments are usually tied in with his
little 'tinker' trait! The first time an incident caused a memorable
ruckus, 'Bob' was three years old. I'd received the infamous beckoning
hand from his Nursery Teacher, and off I shuffle to get a parental grilling.
I seriously don't know how she kept her face straight, I'm confronted
with the statement
"He's spent most of the day in
Reception!"
I'm starting to get somewhat twitchy
at this point, and ask
"So what's he been up to this
time?" with a slight head cock to the right.
"He managed to make the whole
class cry!"
Wow! That was an achievement for a
three year old, Crikey what the hell has he been up to!
It transpires that my son had a real
passion for switching the classroom lights on and off, and completely oblivious
to the cries of his classmates, and as if that wasn't enough, the CD
player attracted attention too and he kept switching between CD and Radio -
Rock FM it transpires does not go down well with 25 three year olds. Now
I know it wasn't funny for the little ones but how does one
child manage to run rings round two Nursery Teachers!
Our 'Bob' likes to save the very best for
us, his nearest and dearest. One year he
managed to convince my husband that our town must have had an airport and it
was located on the nearby golf course and to prove he was right he pulled up a
google maps page and presented my husband with his findings. Mr Autynary wasn’t convinced but ‘Bob’
presented him with the TomTom, and there it was! By this point both of us are on the verge of believing
this great find. And making a few logical searches on the web soon realised
that the little tinker had found a WWII map of a nearby American airbase and
had overlaid the map on google and had edited the TomTom information. He’d been rumbled!
The Selfridges run around was another
unpredicted moment. ‘Bob’ has a passion
for buttons, wires, knobs, anything really that is remotely twiddly. The need to fiddle became so overwhelming one
Christmas, the sight of all the timer controllers in the kitchen department
sent him on overload. He managed to run
around and synchronize all of said items to go off at exactly the same time!! All we got was an almighty “RUN!”
I thought he was just having a monumental meltdown and had decided
to hightail it out of the store. That
was until I heard an almighty ripple of timer bells going off!!
You would think the safety of our own home would prevent his
antics. Ha Ha Ha! No! ‘Bob’ had been
badgering for a radio station and Mr Autynary decided to give him a transmitter. Not such a good idea. Somehow ‘Bob’ had sussed out how to transmit
the dull set tones of Tiffany “I think we’re alone now! And his own version of Neighbourhood
News right in the middle of an FM Band Radio 4 afternoon broadcast! I wondered
why my neighbors opposite was standing outside their home with their arms
crossed and a few disapproving looks!
Household chores don’t escape his comical touch either! Most recently Bob decided to fill the dishwasher
which was odd in itself because he doesn’t engage in chores! There he was, busy as a bee and we generally
thought he was making an effort, so we left him to it!, Big mistake, HUGE! Somehow the machine didn't
get put on that night and I put it on
first thing in the morning. When I got back home after school drop off I am greeted by a sea
of bubbles seeping out of the sides of the dishwasher! They were absolutely
everywhere!. Every time I
opened the door more bubbles appeared. It resembled a Faulty Towers
sketch. It took me hours to clean the
mess up.
When I picked him up from school and asked if there
was something he wanted to share with me, a little smirk crept over his face
“I wasn't me!”
“ It was the plate with bubbles on!”
“What plate with bubbles on ‘Bob’?”
“The one covered in fairy liquid!”
I can only assume that the fragrant green liquid decided to sprout
legs and walk itself onto the plate for a bit of a lie down. You may think at this point that ‘Bob’ isn’t
supervised, the comical reality is that he is.
The art of stealth has been well honed! Even though we chuckle and find it amusing it does highlight a more serious point the invisible vulnerability of children and adults with high
functioning Autism! Never assume the obvious, and never let them fill your dishwasher!
