As some of you may know, my son has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism. One of the traits that he has is that he tends to "perseverate" (a fancy word for "obsess" or be really focused) on things that interest him.
For the past year, he has enjoyed going to the arcade, where he wins tickets for prizes. He ends up not caring much for the prizes, so I think it's the winning. He watches game shows, where people win prizes. He has several computer games (Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right, Deal or No Deal, etc.) that he likes to play where you can win money and prizes. And, he likes to scratch lottery tickets when we buy them. I tried to use the lottery tickets as a way to teach him about gambling - and the fact that you lose more than you win. If a lottery ticket was a winner, I would put half the winnings into savings, another way to teach him how to handle money better.
Well, this week, I informed him that I wasn't going to buy any more tickets for at least several months. After awhile, he informed me that his hand told him that it would stop working if it didn't get any "scratcherize".
I about burst out laughing! It was 1) just plain funny that he came up with this term that combined "exercise" and "scratch"; and 2) really impressive because it showed that he can be creative, which is sometimes difficult for a child with autism.
But I held firm - he didn't like the idea of not being able to scratch tickets for awhile, but he eventually accepted it.
Scratcherize! I'm still chuckling .. .
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The things kids say . . .
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2 comments:
That's hilarious Dee. I'll have to remember that one.
Hi Carver,
It is pretty funny . . . one almost has to give in when something like that happens, especially in Eddie's case since his creativity is not as developed. I couldn't really laugh about it until later, when I was talking on the phone with a friend, since laughing in front of him would've made him feel bad. I wanted to give him a "high-5" though and say, wow, good job coming up with that one!
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