I’d like to introduce my son, Raiki, aged 7. He’s gentle, funny, cute, quirky, and yes, autistic. He represents what seemed once to be our greatest sorrow but now is unquestionably our biggest joy. When dressing for bed last night, he was so sleepy that he put his briefs on over his jeans and walked out to the living room to kiss us goodnight. When we all laughed, he looked down and tugged on his underwear, wondering how they had gotten there. He looked up, gave us a crooked smile, and then went into a giggle fit.
Although it is true that autistic children often fall into strict routines, we try to challenge Raiki with novel situations. He used to get upset if he did not always get in the car through the same door, but over the years, we have made him go through the far door, climb back from the front passenger seat and even climb through from the hatchback. We have gotten a lot of stares. Whenever we squelch one of these behaviors, however, a new one develops in another part of his day to challenge us further. We recently discovered that he was only entering the kitchen through the entrance way door, not the door most used by other members of the family. He is also now eschewing all cracks in the floor tiles, a sort of extreme, perpetual version of “step on a crack, break your mother’s back.” I will share our attempts to deal with these new issues in my next entry.
Feel free to comment, share your stories or ask any questions about Raiki and our life.
