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Friday, October 23, 2009

The SPOON

Ok, time to explain some things. Since my wake, mom and dad have been asked why there was a mixing spoon in my casket and they have realized that there are a lot of people who don’t know of some of my idiosyncrasies, so


The “infamous spoon” – I could never really use a “binky” (pacifier), my tongue was too big for my mouth (a Down Syndrome trai) and a “binky” just kept slipping out so when I wanted something in my mouth, I would chew on my fingers. And I do mean chew….not put my finger in my mouth, but actually chew, and to such a point that I still had calluses, from chewing, on my finger when I passed. One day while mom was cooking dinner, and after having tried everything imaginable to stop me from chewing my finger, mom just pulled my hand from my mouth and handed me the spoon she was using. I ofcourse put it right into my mouth and liked it but more importantly, it had what mom and dad started to refer to as “skake-a-bility”. If I held it just right (still no one else can quite do it), it would shake in a wobbly kind of way that looked like it was floating. I liked the spoon but it really looked funny so mom and dad would try to give me other things to hold but hey never matched he “skake-a-bility” of the spoon so eventually, they just gave in and bought several spoons for me. And guess what ?. What I was doing actually has a name:

Self-stimulation…..

Self stimulation is a key aspect of autistic children (Remember, I had Asberger’s Syndrome also which is a form of Autism). While other children and adults cannot understand why the autistic child does this behavior it is something they are rather obsessive about and seemingly unable to stop. This behavior is also commonly referred to as stimming. Stimming is a repetitive behavior that keeps the child engaged in their own world but serves to stimulate their senses in some form or another. It is often used to help the child regulate themselves in a stressful environment.


Many children with autism have difficulties interpreting sensory information. Whether the world seems to rough, too bright, too loud or any other number of things, it all boils down to their minds not properly coping with the world around them. Stimming is one way that the autistic child can bring back control of their world. These behaviors are the child's way of working out things in their world that don't seem right or to cope with a stressful situation. The positive side to stimming, is it is a calming behavior which help the child to regulate themselves and overcome a situation of stress or upset.

Over time, I became known for my spoon – in fact when I went to the hospital this last time, my spoon and Gameboy (more on he Gameboy in a minute) were in the admission notes and several times mom and dad found out hat one of my Dr’s learned I was there because they saw the familiar name and the mention of the spoon confirmed that it was me……

So I guess the spoon was as much a part of me as your glasses might be to you. Mom and dad always had one with them …they even had to take it through airport security because I had to have it -- and I’ll bet you didn’t know that a mixing spoon is considered a deadly weapon by some of the Bradley Airport security people … So, mom and dad just couldn’t NOT put one with me.

1 comment:

  1. I remember the first time I met Andrew he was showing off his ability to "float" the spoon - floating spoons is a talent I have yet to master

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