Culinary Skills?
One of the warning signs of Autism that I totally missed when SW was a toddler was his profound lack of imitative and imaginative play.* I knew he was developing differently from TR, but we didn’t know early on why or what it meant. Our doctors didn’t pick up on this or many other signs for the longest time either. Had SW been born ten years later, I do believe he would have been diagnosed sooner. Whether that would be for the better or not isn’t something I give much thought to any more. What’s past is past, and my son is learning and growing just fine: at his own pace, but that’s as OK for him as it is for any other child.
With RM we do watch for some things closely still, and I don’t think anyone can blame us for that. Fortunately, her imitation skills and imagination are delightfully apparent.
She likes to hang out in a carrier on my back and look over my shoulder while I’m fixing supper. Then she raids the cabinets for pots and pans and baking dishes and pulls spoons out of the drawers. She will dump in a few toys, stir it all up and say, “I cooking.” She will bring you a spoonfull of playing card soup, or a sampling of Lego casserole on a fork and say, “Want some? Yummy!”
This was on her menu the other evening:
Delicious baked Pikachu. I’ll have to ask her for the recipe if anyone is interested. (SW was not entirely happy about this, as it’s his Pikachu. But even he couldn’t completely resist a laugh.)
TR talks about whether or not she will have Autism or any other disability. I think he worries about it. SW on the other hand isn’t interested at all. I don’t think it’s a lack of empathy on his part though, I just believe to him there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a person who has Autism. It simply is what it is, so whether his sister has it or not is about as important as whether she has his blue eyes or not (which she doesn’t.) Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could adopt at least a bit of that attitude?
*A little disclaimer: Like any of the signs of Autism, not all kids with Autism have deficits in this area. Likewise, not all kids with deficits in this area have Autism. But this is one factor among others that is looked for in making a diagnosis.
Hopefully pikachu was tasty.
Comment by Allison | February 20, 2008