You crack me up! O no, mom is going to fall apart!

            We say the funniest things to children and each other without even realizing it or at least I never used to realize but I do now. The literal mind will take a comment and it will instantly create a literal picture in the mind. My two older children who are 13 and 14 are not autistic but when they were little I would tell them every night " good night sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite." An innocent comment my mother always said to me. Just last year my oldest son said to me “you used to scare me when you said that to me.” I was a little surprised because that was never my intention but if you take that innocent good night saying literally, it’s a little scary for a child. We had a good laugh about it but I have learned to really listen to the things we say and picture it so I might interpret it the same way my son with autism would.

Here are a few things we say and try to place a literal image exactly how it reads and you will see a speed bump on a communication level.

It’s raining cats and dogs!  Child looks outside to expect four legged furry animals falling from the sky, nope just water.

Run like the wind!  Thank you Toy Story for forcing me to realize the wind doesn’t actually run.

Let’s hit the road!  Or we can get in the car and drive because hitting the road would hurt your hand a bit.

Time to jump in the bathtub!  Or carefully get in because jumping in is just a bad idea in general.

I am losing my marbles!  Child grows concerned because the loss of a toy is not fun.

We can do that; it’s a piece of cake!  Mmm cake, and probably has nothing to do with the task.

You crack me up!  O no, mom’s going to fall apart.

Curiosity killed the cat!  Curiosity sounds extremely dangerous.

He or she is the spitting image of you!  Gross

You are what you eat!  Today I am pizza and juice.

You can’t judge a book by its cover!  Although this one has an extremely important meaning, some books really do have great covers.

   I am now aware my kids might have spent a good part of early childhood waiting for bed bugs to bite and I can only imagine how there imaginations ran with that simple comment. Here is a site with all kinds of these sayings to check out and put a literal thought to. You might find it’s much more confusing than we realize and if you know a person with autism who is verbal it would be very informative to read some of these to them and simply ask what they picture in their mind. A good way to understand a different way of thinking and a little closer to understanding as well. http://www.idiomsite.com/