Heartfelt Humor: Embracing Life's Surprises through the Eyes of Autistic Children

When life throws you a curveball, sometimes all you need is a fresh perspective and a good laugh to turn your week around—and that's exactly what this episode is all about. From the moment I found myself unexpectedly signing papers for a new car, I knew this was going to be more than just another week. But it's the little stories, those snippets of humor and heart from my experiences with autistic children, that really shaped these days for me. You'll get a kick out of the boy with the lost phone who just couldn't grasp why we couldn't call him to tell him we found it, and the homeschooled child plotting a 'teacher' change that might be a bit complicated.

Then there are the moments that tug at your heartstrings: a little girl's innocent inquiry about my mother led us down a path of reflection on loss and the concept of heaven through a child's eyes. The magic continues as I recount the tale of 'angels in the room,' a story that resonates with the notion of invisible guardians and a child's genuine intuition. And you won't want to miss the account of Steven, the shark-obsessed, chatterbox kid, whose every word reminds us of the profound ways autistic children perceive and enlighten our world. These stories, amusing and tender, are the threads that weave together this episode, inviting you to see life through a refreshingly candid lens.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:26

Hi everyone, hope you're having a great day. Been a very busy week for me. I don't know about you guys, but I had car problems and then I just ended up getting a new car. So I'll be doing some extra work this the next few months or years to pay it off, but it's a nice car. Going to talk about is.

Speaker 1: 0:51

I'm just going to do some short stories. I'm going to talk about things that I've talked about before that I'd like to share again, and some new ones and some that I've. Most of them I've experienced, but some I haven't. So the first one is called Lost Phone. Okay, so there was this boy. These are autistic kids. So anyway, there's this boy and he had a phone. Okay, so there was this boy. These are autistic kids. So anyway, there's this boy and he had a phone. He was I think he was early teenager and he lost his phone. So everybody at the school was trying to hunt for the phone and stuff and he said to them when you find my phone, call me and tell me you got the phone. And so they were trying to explain to him no, we can't call you because we will have the phone. He says, well, why it's my phone, you should be able to call me. But it took him a little while for them to explain to him and he really didn't quite grasp the concept. He figured this is my phone, you found it, call, call me. But it was kind of comical the way he he thought about that. The other one is called homeschool and I saw this on a website and this a boy or girl was homeschool and she or he said don't want the same teacher next year. I don't know how his mother would or, yeah, our mother or father would have taken that, but I thought it was kind of cute. The other one is and I've shared this story many times, it's one of my favorite is a little girl that I had in my classroom. We were at lunch that was when I ate lunch with my students and she asked me she says where does your mommy live? And I said my mommy lives in heaven. She said you didn't want to go and I said no, I'm going to wait till later to go. And then the next one is angels in the room, and you've all probably heard this one because I've said it a couple times, but I really love this story. It really touched some other people's hearts, so I like to share it again and again. I used to have the drawings, but I did. I used to do touch math a lot and I on their first page there's little boys and girls on it. And before I had gotten this class this would be my second year teaching my para said to me what are we going to do? Because we knew we had some very challenging students, one in particular which I'll talk about a little bit. But I said don't worry about it, you know I'm going to pray about it and we're going to put angels through the room. So and nobody was in the room at the time, we hadn't even gotten the class yet, it was at the end of the year. So anyway, the the year had started and I had made these books out of the touch math in the front page and then I let the kids color them or decorate them and do whatever they want them or decorate them and do whatever they want. So they have ownership of the book. And it was open house. So I got their books out of their desk and put them on top of their desk so their parents can look and see. You know what we're working on with math and the one little boy, steven. I said to him, or I looked at his and he and he had drew angel wings on the back of each of the students and I had shared that one time at church and a lady came up to me and said that her son was autistic and she found that very fascinating that I would say that and it made me wonder, you know, does that curtain stay open longer for some of our autistic kids, especially the nonverbal ones? But he was verbal, Stephen was verbal, very verbal. He had no problems with talking at all. And then kind of another little story with him. He was into anything sharks related and he knew everyone in that lived in the sea. And one day he showed me a picture. He was looking through a book and and, um, he called it a. I think he called it a narwhal or something like that. I said no, that's not a narwhal, that's a shark, um, a sword, uh, shark. And I said, and then I looked down and I read it and I said, oh, stephen, it is, it is that. And he got really, really quiet and just sat there for a minute and he looked up at me and he said you need to say you're sorry, I could do his laugh. I said you're right, steve, I'm sorry, sweetie. Okay, the next one is his name was Chris and he had a lot of trouble learning and a lot of difficulties at home. His parents didn't want him and he was in a foster home and they were just not the real loving kind of people. They took good care of him but, you know, didn't put a lot into him. And so one day we were working on a project, we were going to do dinosaurs, and so I bought these discovery kits for dinosaurs and I got trays and dirt and we were going to go get leaves and stems and stuff and create this big thing and they were partners. Well, I got the dinosaur kits for all my kids I think I had six of them, because they did divide it up into twos and so I get to popping them out. You know they were the little plastic, little wood things and I'm popping them out and I didn't read the directions. And so I'm popping these out and I got like three or four of them and they're in a little piles. And then I read the directions and it says do not pop out, pop out as you do. And so we had this big pile of pieces and I went, oh no, what am I going to do pieces? And I went, oh no, what am I gonna do? And Chris said to me, he said I can put them together and and I would have never guessed this at all so I said, okay, go ahead. And he did. He built every one of them dinosaurs, the kids helped him and stuff, and then they painted them and did all that stuff. But he was like saved the day for me because I thought was going to have to go out and rebuy them all and and so. But it was a good, good lesson for me read the directions before. Okay. Then I have a student that he's a high schooler. I don't. I usually do elementary, but this is a very special kid, so I do. He is is in high school and he is and I've talked about this how kids have to see the end. You use a timer, or you can use, you know a list, or you find different ways to. You know I've done it where you get five stars and then we're on break. So you do five things and then we go on break. There's a lot of different ways to to kind of do that, but they do need to see the end, so, anyway. So this kid is on a timer and I put it on my phone and, um, you know, I make sure he can see it. He has to see it and though it at the timer, so I make sure it's visible for him. Well, sometimes we get done a little bit early, like maybe a minute or two minutes at the most has been. But I have to stay there, he won't let me go. I said can we break early? And he says no, we have to wait until our time's done. So sometimes his mom will come in the room or something and we're just sitting there. I said I have to wait until the time is done. She laughed. She said no, you don't. I said I have to wait till the timer's done. She laughed. She said no, you don't. I said no, this is what he wants. We got a timer. I would expect him to do his work and finish it and not leave early. So I have to do the same. But it's comical, it cracks me up every time it happens. He's a great kid. And then I've talked about jorge once too, and this is where I wrote on the board the girls blank the ball. And so they have to even say, and underneath the, the little line I have is it kick or kicks the ball? Is that the girls kick the ball. And little Jorge raised his hand and and um, and they have to tell me there's like three things, you know, like a capital letter period, and which one is it that kicks ball? And he raises his little hand and he says it's the boys kick the ball. I said, jorge, girls can kick the ball too, but it was cute that he thought that Remember I was telling you back when we were getting this new class and the angel story, there was this other boy and he had a lot of emotional problems. He was on the spectrum but he did have a lot of emotional problems. But there was a lot of difficulties within the home too. So it wasn't kind of his own fault, but he was the kind that could be mean, mean to other kids. He bullied them and he knew how to push everybody's buttons, and I mean teachers that had him before I did, you know, left the rooms crying many times. He just was one of those very challenging kids and back then this was a long, long time ago we didn't have all the behavior specialists that we do nowadays. You had to kind of figure things out on your own. So what we did in my classroom it was me and my para, and back then we had, you know, we had relatively smaller classes than we do, than they do now I think we had eight, maybe eight kids, and so what we would do in order for him not to push our buttons anymore this is just kind of a story. It's not really a funny story, but I would, we would, I would personally kind of treat him like a football and, um, when I've had enough, I look at my para and she would take him for a while or I would find something independent for him that he could handle and do. And that's how we kind of did that with him. And then, when she had enough, she said I've enough, and I would take him and whatever he was working on, he'd sit with me or again, maybe do something that was independent. So that's how we handled him. So he knew that he couldn't just push our buttons and get what he wanted. We were going to figure out a solution for this situation, and which we did. And then Luke, this kid, I've had him, I'm still tutoring him, and I mean, this kid's a giant and but I've had him since he was like first grade, something like that Kind of a sad case had had a bad experience with his first teacher. She just didn't have the patience with him and she just stuck him in a corner and he was by himself, you know, and um, he did, I think he did have a pair with him, but still he was just stuck in a corner. So when I got him at first he just, you know, would throw tantrums, throw himself on the floor and but I said, um, no, we're not, you're not going to be separated, you're going to be with the class. And once he realized he was part of the group and stuff, I never had any kind of problems with him. He had a very kind and gentle soul and he still does. Just a wonderful kid. And, matter of fact, because of the situation they had in another teacher, I had the district administrators come in to do some observations on him and I got this beautiful letter I wish I had kept it saying that whatever she's doing, keep doing it. Because she said I would have not known that that was. I didn't know that was the same kid when I first walked in. So anyway, that was a kind of a good story for me. But this kid anyway, like I said, he has he's a giant kid and he has a giant heart. He's just the sweetest kid you could ever imagine. And I know I say that a lot about my kids, but I really feel that way. So, anyway, I've told this story before. But we were in the library, my period was out again, and so I was kind of alone and I got kids here, kids there, and I'm kind of frantic-y a little bit and kind of not keeping my cool. And then he has to go to the bathroom and he takes forever. And I'm saying I got kids that are in line. So I'm like, oh my gosh, and I was frustrated and finally I said, you know, come on, you're done, let's go, let's go. And he could see the frustration in me and he got in front of me and I kept trying to, you know, move around him and he wouldn't let me, he just wouldn't let me go. I said, luke, let me, let me go. And he wouldn't do it. And finally I just stopped for a minute and I looked at him and he kind of laughed and he put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me like, and he's, he's deaf too. So he, you know, assigned to me, you know, be calm, and and and just take a breath. And I and I knew, I knew exactly what he meant, you know. And he was right. And then I started laughing. I said you're right, luke, take a breath, it's not that serious, it's just library, we'll get together, nobody's running out of the room, we'll get it together, go back to class. And he was right. So you know, and it just touched my heart and I always remember that story because, you know, he sensed my frustration and he calmed me down and that taught me that. You know, he got it in life. You know, there's don't worry about it, it's OK. And he kind of has that attitude you know, don't worry about it, it's fine. You know tomorrow will be another day, so just take it easy. And he was right, we need to look at life like that Kind of taught me a good lesson there and I appreciated that. So, anyway, those are the short little stories I have for today. I know I went a little bit longer than I normally do, but I hope you enjoyed them. And I do have my mother told me one time. She said write down all these stories. And I didn't do it and I have more. So I did write down a few of them and I'm going to see if I can find them and then share some more stories with you. And I know that you probably have stories of your own that you can share and that's great, you know. Share those stories with the people and some good stories. I know that it's frustrating, but just you know, let's take a little lesson from Luke. It's okay, just take a breath. It's not that serious. You know what's the big deal? There is no big deal, just go with the flow. Anyway, I hope you really all have a blessed day, weekend's coming up, today's Friday, and I hope you have a good and fun and relaxing and do something for yourself this weekend. Bye-bye.