ruwth is writing...

~ The Broken Umbrella ~

"Your new client has autistic traits."

"What does that mean?" asked the job coach.

"He is not diagnosed with autism but he exhibits some traits like a person on the autism spectrum."

As she left her supervisor's office, the job coach thought to herself, "Time to ask Google for more information."

As she read through the information she found, it was as if she was reading about her grandson. He was sensitive to loud noises. He also had a heightened sense of smell and touch.

She thought back to dealing with his strong reaction to the sound of lawn mowers at the apartment complex where he lived and hand dryers in restrooms. She had worked with him to help him to be able to be around those sounds without freaking out.

And his sense of smell—he tended to use his nose before his vision when she decorated a birthday cake for him. He wanted to smell everything. He liked to smell her feet. He was a strange child.

Perhaps he had autistic traits.

What else was different about him? Well, she had noticed early on that he did not engage in conversation in the way his sister and cousin did. They were a bit younger than him but they had back and forth conversations with each other whereas, although he was able to talk, he talked at people rather than with them. His comments were random and were not in response to what other people said to him. It was hard to even get him to answer a question. He would speak but his sentences were usually off the wall things not answers.

Realizing all this, the job coach began to talk to her daughter about these things and together they began to explore the idea that this little boy was also exhibiting autistic traits.

It was years before they finally found someone to do some testing for them to determine what was happening. Eventually, the child was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.

The name of the disorder was later changed to Autism Spectrum Disorder but the grandmother would always remember that first day of testing and the psychologist sharing the results with her and her daughter.

One particular part of the testing sticks in her mind to this day. The examiner had shown her grandson a picture like this:

She asked the little boy to tell her about the picture. His response was unique:

"It is a cheap umbrella. She probably made it herself."

Yep, he definitely saw the world in his own very special way...



Created on : Apr 29, 2019 at 9:44am.
Written for "The Bard's Hall Contest" 
^{Picture Prompt:}
Word Count: 427 Words

~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~