What they don't tell you in the Autism books...

I posted this story a while back on one of my blogs, but I wanted to share it here for some of my mommy friends who have their own potty stories...

So, I wrote my research paper in Film as Rhetoric back in the fall of 2006 on the depiction of autism in movies as a temporal or transitory condition--a character device that imbues a sort of mystique to a particular character. I've seen probably about 10,000+ feature films and made-for-tv movies to date and each worse than the one before.

And, within each movie, the autistic character suddenly becomes not all that autistic by the third act of the movie. In one movie, Molly, an autistic woman is "cured" of her autism through a controversial, experimental brain surgery. In another, the autistic 4 year-old "snaps out" of his autism long enough to shoot the father who abandoned him 4 years before when his father tries to strangle his mother. (Yea. Tobey would probably be grabbing a gun, unlocking the safety, and shooting a man square in the heart.)

What they also don't show in the movies? That autistic children shove food in their mouths and are prone to choking. That they have zero sense of danger. And, that they are very difficult to potty train--something I have worked with Tobey on for many, many years. It's been slow going and we have to do "potty cheers" when Tobey poops in the toilet and not his underwear ("Poo poo in tha Pot'ay, Poo poo in tha Pot'ay..."--you get the jest).

So, one night about two years ago, as I was sitting at the computer enthralled in Ed White's Teaching and Assessing Writing and typing away, Tobey came into the living room, "poo poo in tha pot'ay!" I responded, "Great job," and went back to work.

He came back about 2 minutes later: "Poo poo in tha pot'ay!" I responded, "Yea, I know. Great job!!"

Tobey was still not satisifed. So, he went into the bathroom and came back a minute later: "Momma, poo poo in the po'tay!!" To get my attention this time, Tobey had reached into the toilet, pulled out the poop, and brought it to me in the living room to show me just exactly what he'd done. And, that he wanted me to sing the song.

So, I cheered for his wet poo dripping all over the floor. Then I washed his bottom. And, hands. And, went back to work. Yes, that is something they never show in the movies.