A for Autism
For Halloween, my five year old niece Anna dressed up as Swiper, the villain from that Dora show. She demanded it, despite her mother’s attempts to have her be a fairy princess or a unicorn. When Anna doesn’t get what she wants, she starts screaming at the top of her lungs, then continues to throw her body on the ground. She keeps screaming until her little voice dies out, and then proceeds to bite her hands and arms. Anna was diagnosed with “A” two years ago. Her parents only refer to it as “A.” “She’s on the high end of the spectrum, it’ll be gone before she knows how to spell the word,” her mom says.
Anna just entered Kindergarten and has not been able to stay a full day yet. Anna’s two teachers have called her mom everyday asking for her to be picked up because they’ve tried everything but still can’t stop her from screaming and crying.
“You seem to really know her and she loves when you come, and Anna just won’t talk to me right now, can you come by?” Anna’s mom asked me today over the phone, also crying.
So I went, and I brought Anna a doll that reminded me of her.
The first thing she did when she saw it was grab it by its hair and throw it on the floor. “I don’t like it. It’s prettier than me,” she said in an earnest voice.
A little too early to be self-conscious if you ask me.
Anna pulled me to her room to show me her doll collection.
Anna has names for each one. They are as follows: Broken Chair, Peanut Shell, Paint, Peter Sand (?? that’s what it sounds like), Ok Bye, and Ball.
The dry erase board next to the dolls proudly displayed Anna’s latest drawing.
“Do you like Kindergarten Anna? I heard you started Kindergarten! How fun!” I was told to exaggerate with her.
“No one plays with me, and they tell me to take off my jacket,” she said in her usual monotone voice.
Anna cannot go anywhere without this jacket. She takes it off while in the house but never leaves home without it. Anytime the family is late for anything, the reason always is, “Anna couldn’t find her jacket.”
“Do you have to have the jacket on even when it’s hot?”
“I’m not hot, I’m not hot, I’m not hot,” She said. Then she continued to pick up and throw the doll I brought while saying, “Too pretty, too pretty, too pretty.”
I felt like throwing too.
I picked Anna up, and threw her onto the bed. “TOO PRETTY!”
She looked up at me and smiled. “Again,” she said.
