This might have been my first proper attempt at chronicling the complexities of Pip, got out of the archive from April 2018. Bear with it….
In the supermarket with Dad and both siblings, Pip makes it clear he’d like to visit the petit filous aisle. This was expected, as Pip is a bit crazy for the stuff! We can’t usually leave the supermarket without a six pack in each flavour which he will then insist on opening all at once immediately on getting home. He doesn’t really want to eat it, but we tend to encourage him to have at least a hearty spoonful out of each pot, and we’ll eat a bit of it too otherwise it would be a crying food waste. Standard protocol is that we then have to wash out all of the pots, and separate them (but only after he’s at a safe distance with his fingers in his ears, because the sound of the pots being snapped apart from each other scares him). He then takes the pots upstairs and adds them to the collection he already has. In his bed. Because he sleeps in a rustling, strawberry-scented, sea of filous pots. Hundreds of them. Today, he wanted the giant family pack in the supermarket. Dad decides this is a step too far and refuses the giant family pack in favour of a six’er. Pip thinks we don’t understand so re-emphasises his wishes which, for a non verbal child, involves a lot of noise and grappling over the filous. In the end a physical extraction is needed using the piggyback technique*. This used to be quite good camouflage for a physical extraction but it doesn’t pass under the radar quite so well now that Pip is nearly 11. Especially when he’s shrieking at the top of his voice so that everyone is nicely invited to share his displeasure. Siblings calmly help Dad gather the rest of the shopping and checkout. The angels. Fast forward to tired Dad putting the shopping down in the kitchen. Pip makes a beeline for the filous. And sticks it straight in the bin.
Pip’s autism seems to involve him having an internal narrative which is totally different to, and often in complete conflict with, that of most other people. And because he doesn’t speak (never has!), he can’t explain the subtleties of his brilliant alternative narrative to us dumbos who are locked into a narrative dictated by society and perceptions of what is ”normal”. It’s hardly surprising then that he frequently, literally, bangs his head against a brick wall.
Autism can be very different to Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, being a savant with numbers or drawing, finding friendships difficult, or saying the wrong thing in a social situation. It can be not being able to speak, needing banging noise around you all the time but being frightened of the sudden sounds of a balloon popping, a polystyrene pizza base being broken or Christmas crackers. It can be banging your head against a wall and sleeping in a sea of petit filous pots.
*Big shout out to Dad for still being able to do the piggyback extraction.
Updates for 2020:
- Pip no longer sleeps in a sea of filous pots. He totally moved on!
- Piggback extraction technique is a distant memory, owing to a huge growth spurt. Halcyon days.
autism: you can't beat it 