May the 4th be with you..........

couldn't resist.

Disney Hollywood Studios blog picture

Mr. RyLeigh has become enamored with all things Star Wars. It is very typical for a kid on the spectrum to become fixated with "something". Ry is fortunate in that his fixation is movable. Some folks are have their one fixation for their whole life. He still lines things up in order to feel good about it but....it was Thomas the Tank Engine, then dinosaurs, then ninjas, then back to dinosaurs, then sharks, then pirates and all things piratical, then came Star Wars. Now please understand these fixations aren't monthly flights of fancy, they are all encompassing years. The exciting part is that he is intigrating them. So now you might even find a dinosaur in with the Star Wars substituting for a battle animal. For him that's shocking. Up until now, there was no substitution....it was against the law of RyLeigh the imaginator.

He is also so spectrum disorder typical that he knows everything there is to know about his fixation. Names, numbers, kinds, shapes, etc. I makes me a little crazy but that's what we do here at Casa de Cuckoo....."sting like a butterfly, punch like a flea" - Uncle Sy from Duck Dynasty.

Ry received a Star Wars encyclopedia on his birthday last month and withing the first two days had it memorized. He knows more about speeders and clone wars than I ever have. And it is all new to him so he thinks I don't know anything about it, which when you get down to it, I have a passing knowledge. So I have become the student, so has Sweet Man. We are his lecture class attendees. This also is very typical of someone with PDD-NOS.

This behavior is what keeps Ry from being able to make friends with kids of their own age because he comes off as a know it all.......which he pretty much does but they don't care for him being their lecturer. I can't blame them but I just wish he could fine someone who liked him anyway. He does too. He's having a tough time being "different". I keep telling him we are all different, but at his age....it doesn't help much.

He is a great kid who is still looking for a friend. I watched a movie this last week "Mozart and the Whale" which is about folks with Aspergers. The actors did a stellar job of portraying all the tics, non eye contact and frustrations of folks who are differently abled but still people. It was a love story. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a look into spectrum disorder people lives.

So my lovelies, we wish you May the 4th be with you as well.