Yes, Kids With Autism Are Full Of Imagination!

   It's almost time!  Almost time for the moment my son has been waiting for, for months.  Jurassic World is about to come out and I cannot wait to see how my son reacts.  You see, it's not just a 5 year old who loves dinosaurs, it's a 5 year old who loves Jurassic Park.  He has mastered the art of the velociraptor call and when he needs to feel brave, like his first day of baseball, he will turn into a T-Rex. Not just any T-Rex but the Jurassic Park T-Rex and has also mastered the sound it makes in the movie. While kicking the dirt and roaring like a dinosaur he isn't showing an autism behavior but a little boy tuning into what makes him feel brave. Autism just limits how he communicates that feeling.  He finds action figures that resemble Dr. Grant and not only watches all 3 movies, but is very fond of the extra two bonus material discs.

   He routinely mimics the film score and I can't count how many times he has asked me to drive faster because a T-Rex is chasing the car.  He attends Easter Seals Autism Center, which by the way has changed his life completely, and there is an atrium on the way in that is indeed Jurassic Park in his world.  No, this is not an autism "obsession" it is a little boy who is just flat out loves Jurassic Park that started last summer on a trip to the ocean where he watched it for the first time.  I recently bought him a Jurassic Park shirt and I have bought him dinosaur shirts many times, but this one he will not wear.  However he will carefully spread it out on display to look at because he loves it so much. I could even say overwhelmed by just how much he loves it!  I have high hopes one day he will actually put it on.  Also purchased him a set of hot wheels from the new movie but he will not open the box. It stays in tact and again, he loves it so much he doesn't want it altered in any way.  He carries it around kindly rejecting any offers to open it for him.  He has recently discovered a poster in the Dairy Queen window that advertises a Jurassic World Blizzard and although he won't eat ice cream, we stopped to get the cup and while we waited he practiced his velociraptor call, admiring the cup when he finally got his little hands on it saying "this is so cool!" then trying to mimic the brontosaurus sounds that the people around us could never understand but I know exactly what he is doing and why.

   The autism challenge with this love for Jurassic Park is going to see it.  He has never been to a movie theater and I know he may not be able to handle it at all.  I personally can't tolerate the noise level in a movie theater and he has very sensitive hearing.  Expecting him to sit and stay calm is not really a fair expectation to place on him just yet, mostly because he has been excited for months about Jurassic World and the concept of being still and quiet is still being taught.  A big question for an autism parent is always to try or not to try?  Often we know it won't work but we also have that thought of, but what if it does work?  Most likely we will skip the theater and attempt a drive-in movie where volume is under our control and getting a little excited in the car is perfectly fine but that bedtime routine of 7pm may just take us home early, long before the movie begins.  If nothing gets this little Jurassic Park fan watching it on the big screen we wait until it's released on DVD.  They say in order to understand autism you have to get into their world and that's true, but sometimes you just have to remember what it was like to be a kid and what kind of adventures imagination takes you on. Lately his 5 year old imagination has had him on adventures that I would think look a lot like this.....
                                          

This picture is not my property, I snatched it off the internet because it sums it all up, and it's cool.=)