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Rolzup
Snowy Owl
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04 Jun 2012, 1:51 pm

Eldest (8) is...inappropriately social. He'll approach total strangers and ask them to give him things, he'll rattle off his name, address and phone number without prompting, he'll do silly dances in public in order to amuse small children.

(This last managed to really upset a woman with a baby at the barber shop a few months back; he just WOULDN'T leave the woman and her child alone until I got him sufficiently distracted.)

Physically he's eight. Intellectually, maybe a little older. Emotionally, he's maybe four. It's led to a few problems.

But....

Last week, we attended a series of five plays that his school put on -- 2nd through 4th grades, with Eldest being one of the second graders.

All-in-all, something like 80 different kids, with maybe 2/3rds of them having speaking parts.

Eldest was the ONLY child who delivered his lines audibly. Every other child talked quietly, or mumbled. But Eldest enunciated, and he emoted, and he chewed the scenery like Brian Blessed...only shorter, skinnier, and a lot less hairy. Multiple people told us how impressed they were.

I'm still a bit amazed, in truth. A little less so now that I've learned that he puts on "shows" after school out out front window for the little kids who attend the in-home daycare next door...but still.

It bodes well, I think.



Wreck-Gar
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04 Jun 2012, 2:27 pm

That's really cool. I wonder if my son will be like this some day...he already will put on "shows" where he sings songs for family and teachers, followed by "Listening and dancing to music...is...AWESOME!" (a la DJ Lance of Yo Gabba Gabba), and expecting applause.



schleppenheimer
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04 Jun 2012, 3:35 pm

Sounds like my son when he was younger. At the local Barnes and Noble, there was a little stage in the children's book section, and he would regularly get up there and try to act out something -- whether it was appropriate or not.

When he got older, we had him do a theatre program for a couple of years. He enjoyed it, but not enough to continue.

Acting apparently is easy for people on the spectrum. What you describe your son doing sounds very much like what I've heard about Andy Kaufman, of "Taxi" fame, when he was a young boy.



ASDMommyASDKid
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04 Jun 2012, 5:24 pm

That is awesome! I have a little ham, too. :)