My husband and I have five kids; the three youngest are on the Autism spectrum. Ezra, the youngest, is high functioning. He is able to get A's in school without formal support, but gets very anxious in unfamiliar situations. Our middle child, Jake, is also near the middle of the spectrum. He needs support to keep up in school, and he doesn't have a broad range of interests, but what he knows, he knows very well. Roxie is right between Ezra and Jake's age. She would be considered "low-functioning." She has very little language, mostly repeating what is said to her, and will never be able to live on her own. Her greatest gift is that she doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks of her. I truly admire that.
It's very easy for people to underestimate Roxie's intelligence, but believe me, just because she can't say it, doesn't mean she's not thinking it. When she was about six years old, she indicated to me that she wanted syrup. To my knowledge, she had never had syrup, and I wasn't about to open THAT can of worms, so I said no, which she took surprisingly well, and I gave her something else. Done, right? Later that day, I took a load of laundry to the basement, and when I came back up, the door was locked! My husband opened the door after a few minutes of me pounding on it, and I discovered a chair sitting under the cabinet where the syrup was. Roxie had figured out how to get what she wanted, and patiently waited for an opportunity. She actually locked me out, and got a chair to reach the syrup! You've just gotta admire that!A few weeks ago, I decided to challenge myself to learn how to walk in high heels without looking like Frankenstein. So I ordered a cute pair of shoes. Roxie was sitting beside me as I opened the box. I exclaimed "Holy Frickin' CRAP!' (several times), when I saw how high the heels were. The next day, Roxie let out a HUGE burp (ok, it was a fart), and she said "Holy Frickin' CRAP!" spontaneously, AND in context. I was ecstatic!
Every day when she wakes up, I ask her if she is wet or dry. When she's dry, she gets high fives, knuckle bumps, and lots of praise. This morning, she told me she was dry, but I noticed that she wasn't wearing the same thing she went to bed in. Sure enough, her bed was wet, but she had changed her own clothes (for the first time EVER), so that she could tell me that SHE was dry. That's awesome!
Roxie totally ROCKS!
