My son’s visual perception of his Aunt | Autism PDD
If you all don't go to a pool to swim, can everybody put on their swimsuits and wash the car, play in the sprinkler, etc? Maybe the fact that she does not wear trunks will clarify things.
Cole calls his trunks TRUNKS and my bathing suit my SWIMSUIT. So, although we've never discussed this, he does notice.
My only other idea is to have her paint her toenails.
Best of luck!
We had this issue too, with Mason and his teacher...I just posted on another thread how I think that was the biggest reason Mason didn't connect with his teacher last year. Not that she was offended by what he would say, just that he connects better with women and his quote was always "Mrs. A says she's a girl, but she looks like a boy."
I apologized a few times to her when Mason would say it when I was around, I can't imagine how many times he said it when I wasn't around...he seemed to be fixated on it.
Sorry, no advice, just know you aren't alone.
sharonsp... he sounds so cute!!!! I love the imagination! And the sentences! Beautiful! I think this is very common with kids on the spectrum. Because of theyare more comfortable with static versus dynamic systems, they tend to
categorize based on "clues". In this case, at some point your son may
have "figured out" or been told that men have short hair and wear pants
and women have long hair and wear dresses. So, based on this criteria,
this is how he's learned to categorize, and come hell or high water, a
person falls on either one side or the other....there's no in between. I
think getting a good bookthat goes a bit further in describing the
differences between boys and girls is a good first step. Using body parts
might make it easier for him to accept your arguement. Fortunately,
because my ds has a twin sister, and they took baths together up until
the last year, he's very clear on the differences
There is a little situation at my house. My son is very visual and for some reason, he refuses to accept that his Aunt (my sister-in-law) who lives with us is a woman. Granted she dresses like a tomboy, has short hair, wears sneakers, baseball caps etc., not really feminine at all but a lovely person. He often matches cartoon characters to members of our household. Every time he matches her to one it’s always a robust male. She always frowns and tells him she’s a girl and he says “no you’re not, you’re a man”. Then she tells him that men don’t have B**bies. I don’t mean to laugh and don’t really find it amusing, it’s just my son’s perception of what a woman is -- is what makes me laugh. I’m a real girlie-girl and so is his sister and the rest of my family. Recently when we had a house party, something came up where he had to identify all the women. Again he left out his Aunt until she protested and then he told her in front of everyone that she looks like a man. He does call her Aunty N. though. She really must look odd to him. How on earth can I get him to understand?
His latest phobia is walking trees. For the last couple of weeks he’s been telling me to close the bedroom window b/c the trees will catch him. He asked me about a dozen times last night if trees walk. My answer was “have you seen one walking?” and he said no and then I told him trees don’t have legs so they can’t walk. Don’t s’pose that that was the most intelligent answer but when will he realize what’s real and what not? He’ll be 7 in January and will surely be a laughing stock if some of the kids hear things he says. He must have seen walking trees somewhere but I don’t know where.
Latest obsession: still death and coffins.
Boy if it isn’t one thing it’s another.
T thought she was a BOY for a couple years ... then she discovered "the difference," when she got a brother, and went around announcing who had WHAT.
So it seems like this is kind of an issue.
Not a thing you can really do to persuade them, I swear it!
speaking of death is easier than speaing about life
no qestions are asked of him and no rules apply to death
when death is spoken of many will walk away and leave the conversation
walking trees has he seen lord of the rings or has it been on in the background when he has been there
here is a ,link
have alok and explain although trees are alive they do not want to move because they happy in there soil
http://www.talkabouttrees.org/
No gender confusion here, but when both boys enounter an overweight woman they often say things like "mommy is she going to have a baby or is she just fat?"
Sharon - how does your sister-in-law handle it? Does she get annoyed or is she a good sport?
You may want to go on google images and find a whole bunch of pictures of men and women. Get as diverse a set as you and find. Then print them out and do some sort of male v. female matching game, giving him points whenever he guesses correctly. Just a thought...
Hi Kristy,
She brushes it off but I know she's is embarrassed. It's not the first time this issue has come up. Her ex wanted her to grow her hair and told her that from the back she looks like a guy. I have often threatened to throw out her T's, sneakers and baseball caps but she is comfortable this way. Other family and friends have asked if she was gay, so Chris's skewed perception her is valid but he still should know what "attributes" are male and female. I will see if I can find a book at the learning store.
Chris also tells it like it is. Big, fat, old, ugly. Yep, I've been embarrased many times now too.
My dd is into pointing out gender differences which can be a little embarrassing in and of itself. But at the indoor pool, which has quite the echo, she pointed out that the long haired (male) lifeguard "looks like a girl" I was
.Walking trees are very imaginative.
I have heard of children being afraid of trees before.I was also going to ask about LOTR. The Ents are trees that walk.
Walking trees are in the Wizard of Oz, and also the trees in Harry Potter seem to be alive.
I guess I would tell him that some women just don't look like mom and sister.
Thanks for your responses but he's never seen Lord of the Rings. I haven't seen any of them either. I try not to let him watch things that might scare him, like halloween movies etc. mostly because he doesn't understand and I can't reasonaly explain things without confusing him further. I just tell him it's TV stuff. Mind you he is the same with the computer. There is a cartoon charachter called Starfire that he calls his girlfriend and we have had many crying episodes when I cannot take her out of the computer. Sometimes I want to just bang my head against a concrete wall in frustration. People tell me to just ignore him but how can I? He calls my mum "his beautiful wife". How do I explain what a wife is let alone explain that his aunt is a lady.
I know that one day things will eventuall click!
My daughter is the same way. If someone look like a guy, she lets the whole world know. Were at the store, people pass by girl ,boy , boy. Here comes some tomboy looking grannies. My daughter goes boy, boy, boy. Mom look a bunch of boys and she is pointing at them. I'm thinking........ I hope this does not end up in a fight me againist the Grannies.
She does stuff like that all the time. Someone walks by and she goes ew REAL LOUD that person stinks Yuck and she is holding her nose gagging.
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