Teen Autism

Man, what a day. Just when I think things are going pretty well, thinking I can breathe a little easier, the phone rings. As an introvert, I don’t get too excited when the phone rings anyway. But when Nigel’s not home and the phone rings, I get nervous.

This afternoon, Nigel wanted to ride his bike to a neighborhood kid’s house a couple of blocks away, so I said sure, just be careful and be home by five. Less than 45 minutes later, the phone rang and it was the elementary school about half a mile away. Apparently the kid he went to visit wanted to hang out at the school, so Nigel went with him, and then he proceeded to get into an argument with the kids in the after-school club there. One of the girls said something that upset Nigel, and things escalated to the point where Nigel was so agitated that he threatened her by saying he would tear her arms and legs off, after she had called him a second-grader. I told the school I’d be there in five minutes.

If I had a dollar for every time all the schools over the years called me about Nigel’s disruptive behavior, I could certainly pay for a much-needed massage for myself. You would think after all these years that I would be used to it, that it wouldn’t rattle me the way that it does. But every time it happens I feel like I have a brick in my gut and a sense of hopelessness floods my veins. I’m so tired of it. I’m so tired of having to apologize and explain my son’s behavior to someone and wondering if it will ever change.

But this time was different. This time Nigel apologized, and without prompting. To the adult moderator of the club he said, “I’m sorry, I have autism and sometimes I can’t control my anger.” And then, on his own, he went and apologized to the girl, told her that what she said had upset him, and she apologized to him. It was like something out of a movie. Something I wouldn’t have dared to dream of.

And the brick was gone and I thought, Wow, he’s actually starting to get it. Then we went home and I talked with him about what had happened, and how proud I was of him that he had apologized. He still needs to do a lot of work in the area of letting go of an argument and the feeling that he has to “get back at someone” when they upset him, and remembering that it’s never okay to threaten people. And I know I have to prepare myself for many more confrontations and ensuing phone calls. But we made progress today. Development is always slow, but it’s there. And so is my faith in him.

Nigel has a friend over today, whom I’ll call Riley. Riley has been Nigel’s friend for about five years, and while Riley has several other good friends he would probably rather hang with on a Saturday, he always makes time for Nigel and accepts him, autism notwithstanding.

Nigel has always been a social person, which I think is what propelled him to step outside of himself and learn to talk. When he was about five and not functionally verbal, he would approach NT kids at the playground and try to engage them the only way he knew how: laughter. The problem was that the kids would think that he was laughing AT them, of course, which caused a slew of problems necessitating me to intervene. I think it was because of these unsuccessful experiments in the social realm that Nigel decided if he wanted to have friends, he needed to learn to talk.

One of my favorite sites for autism information is Natural Learning Concepts, which recently posted an in-depth interview with Stephen Shore that I really enjoyed reading. Here is what he says about friendship: “It is my sense that people with autism don’t want to have friends is a myth.  What seems more accurate is that those of us on the autism spectrum have a different way of making friends.”  So profound and yet so simple. I wholeheartedly agree.

Making a friend was a huge milestone for Nigel. And learning how to keep that friend has also been a milestone. It hasn’t always been easy: over the years, Nigel has had outbursts at school, including some resulting in injury to Riley, that I’m sure have caused Riley to reevaluate if it would be advantageous to continue being Nigel’s friend. But Riley does and he is. His presence and his loyalty encourage Nigel’s self-esteem more than anything else, I think. 

God bless the Rileys of the world, and bless their parents for raising them to be such patient, understanding kids. We need a few more Rileys around.