Juggling Autism: The Chronicles of Ben Royko

Coyboy Ben! Yeeeee Haaaahhhhh!

Ben loves powdered sugar doughnuts. He also loves cinnamon doughnuts. But two doughnuts is too much. (He would vigorously disagree, even after vigorously eating his Five Guys cheese dog and fries, and his ice cream, and his pear, and his

Ben and Karen were in the back seat for a Ben-drive when Ben’s fraternal twin, Jake, sent a picture, displaying both his cast from carpal tunnel surgery (he’s fine), and a new bushy beard, along with his Grandma Bubbe. This

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