aspergers is little hamburgers...

"Aspergers is little hamburgers inside of me with arms and legs...you know cause AS-PER-GERS sounds like HAM-BUR-GERS. And the little asperger hamburgers have different names...one is shy, one makes noises, one likes Star Wars..."

So the therapist told him yesterday that he has Aspergers and read him a story about "Mike" who has Aspergers and was really focused on Star Wars to the point where his friends didn't want to play with him anymore because they didn't always like Star Wars. Boy said it sounded like him...hmmm go figure! Anyway, the therapist told him that she is going to help him work on different areas of his Aspergers so he can be the best boy he can possibly be and that one of the things they will work on is friendships. He was excited about that.

Then after she explained it to him and explained some of the traits of Aspergers that matched his own traits, she asked if he understood, which he said he did. Then he gave her his own ideas of what Aspergers was...little hamburgers with arms and legs. They hang out inside of him and he will always have them. Sometimes they make him shy, sometimes they make him make noises or do other things.

It was pretty "Gray" thinking for him...he's such a black and white thinker guy. I was amazed, although Im pretty sure he completely believes what he said that there really are little limbed burgers tap dancing around inside of him, but it works for me.

So, if anyone is having difficulty explaining Aspergers to an aspie...maybe you just need to tell them about the little hamburgers...I think I shall now have to write a childrens book with cute little hamburgers with little arms and little legs....little teeshirts that say "Hey I've got my Aspie Burgers on today!"... haha

We went through the first chapter of the book, which he found very interesting. We went through the "Strengths/Talents" section where he could circle things that he felt he was good at or that he really enjoyed learning about and he gave us a little synopsis of each item and how it pertained to him...some of the cute ones were:

dates? - "Yes, I like to remember dates...do you want to know which day someone in class got their name on the board?"

facts about a certain topic? "Yes...let me go get my Star Wars droids.."

mechanical things? (we had to explain what this meant) - "OH yeah, I like batteries" and then he whispered to me "Dad always gets mad at me about batteries because I take them and put them into the toys he doesn't like"

putting things in order? "Yes but the SISTERS always move my things!!!!"

Really those darn sisters! They are really nothing but trouble.

So overall that went pretty well. I am glad he finally knows. Basically the end of our conversation was "Ok, you have this, you will always have this, but you are awesome anyway"

He really is the coolest kid. He is the coolest kid to adults, he is the coolest kid to the older kids in the neighborhood...the kids his age just haven't quite realized how cool he is yet, but they will!