Whitterer on Autism

The workings of the mind are always intriguing. As my autistic boys learn to express themselves verbally, all too often we get tied up in knots of confusion, or rather I do. Trying to unravel their enquiries is often time consuming and requires a great deal of patience. They have to be patient with me whilst my brain plays catch up and connects the dots which are obvious to them but minute and disguised to me.

“Eeoow! What is dat stinky smell which is being in my nose?”
“Yes sorry about that. It’s recycled clay.”
“Recycle? Recycle is stink?”
“Not always but in this particular instance, yes. It’s all the left over bits of clay. I stick them in an old pillow case, in a bucket filled with water. Then when it’s all smooshed together I can use it again, but it is rather smelly.”
“What for the other things that we are do then?”
“Er?”
“Dah two?”
“Which two?”
“Dah re-use and dah reduce.”
“What about them?”
“Are they being the stink too?”
“No they’re not stinky.”
“An dah other one?”
“Which other one? We already have them all, re-use, reduce, recycle, that’s it.”
“No.”
“No?”
“What it is mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“Joyce?”
“Oh…..well Joyce is a name.”
“Who name it is being?”
“Well it can be a first name, like Joyce Grenfell, or it can be a last name like James Joyce.”
“I am like dah other joyce bestest?”
“Er…..you’ve lost me.”
“Dah other ‘re’ is not stink. I am liking dah smell of dah other ‘re.’”
“We’re back to re? What’s that got to do with Joyce? Do you know someone called Joyce whose keen on recycling……or……..something?”
“No. Where is your think today?”
“Think or stink? What are we talking about here?”
“We are have dah old ones.”
“Which old ones?”
“Dah re-use, reduce and dah recycle.”
“O.k. So they’re old are they?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s the new one then?”
“Dah re-joyce which is being smell nice and is being a nice name for a nice smelly thing.”

Who knew fancy tea-bags could ever provoke such a debate?