When my son, Jonathan was in kindergarten he was fascinated with Jim Carrey. In fact, he watched every single one of his movies, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, The Mask, Liar Liar and so on. He watched them day in and day out again and again memorizing it word for word. Parents, if you have kids with autism, you know exactly what I mean. Back in those days Jonny would perseverate which means do the same, repeatedly on whatever interested him the most and Jim Carrey was IT. I was a new mom of a kid with autism at the time and didn’t understand the disorder to say the least. He was all set to be in his first kindergarten Christmas play and had rehearsed his part over and over again with his aide, Caraly. He memorized his part completely. He was to stay in a single file line behind his classmate, Justin and in front of another, Cindy. Next, he was to follow the kids onto the stage, march up to the top row of the bleachers to his predetermined spot, sing their school song and then follow Justin in the line nicely off the stage.
To be continued…