As the 25th anniversary of Dad’s death approaches — April 29 — and as Autism Awareness Month, 2022, winds down, it occurrs to me that my father (Mike Royko), more than 25 years ago, was very aware of autism. I
Disclaimer — This is about Severe Autism, not higher-functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Individuals with those types of autism often do their own writing about their worlds, which are usually extremely different — severely different — from that of Severe
It takes until the sixth paragraph, and again at the end, but yes, I promise, this does involve Big Ben. And I did put a cute, if unrelated, pic at the end. But if you aren’t a music fan, it
Given a handful of the chewiest of chewy candies, also known as Starburst, Ben, very purposefully, gets them ready for his mouth. He doesn’t simply unwrap and eat them one at a time, like (I assume) most of us do.
Ben talks about his grandmother, aka Bubbe, all the time, via his “scripting.” He recites (scripts) the names of people that are, or have been, important to him, and Bubbe is at the top of his list, even though he
Ben gazes out of the back-seat car window on a rainy drive.
Ben was enlisted for volunteer work a few years ago by a great organization called MedWish, which repurposes otherwise-discarded medical supplies and ships them to regions throughout the world that need them. Ben, I believe, was a sorter, a task
It ain’t Jake’s fault, nor Ben’s, but a life with severe autism in the family has meant, instead of having one of those “special” twin-relationships, they never got to have much of a sibling relationship at all. As they grew,
Today, Ben gave me one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. From the earliest days of autism, an alleged “hallmark” was the severely autistic person’s lack of emotions that we consider universal, and central to our very humanity.
Severe autism comes with an endless supply of heartbreaks, big and tiny. And many involve difficulties communicating wants and needs. Ben went into our bedroom during a recent visit and yanked the comforter from our bed and left it on