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This American Life

FairyniceFairynice member
in Special Needs

I am mostly a lurker, but heard this piece over the weekend and wanted to share. I thought it was nicely done and my SO and I were wiping tears from our eyes by the end.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/525/call-for-help?act=3#play

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Re: This American Life

  • typesettypeset member
    edited May 2014
    Made me cry, but I'm a ball of hormones. I caught it after the intro. Kept waiting for the Dx and was surprised to not hear it. My husband happened to hear the piece while he was out and ran home to tell me about it. We had two main takeaways: 1) thank freaking goodness for the Charlottes and 2) it reaffirmed our decision to force flexibility (heh) on him now while he's little and limit access to his fixations. 

    To that point, he was rewarded with an engine yesterday for listening and being notashit at the children's museum. I wasn't there or I would have put the kibosh on trains as a reinforcer. He couldn't nap because he was     obsessed with the idea of hitching it to his MBTA car. He positively quivered when he was talking about the hitch! and the doors! on this freaking engine. We had an interesting afternoon. I can't imagine trying to redirect that after years of indulging it. 
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    11/10/10 The Kid
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  • FairyniceFairynice member

    Good point about SSI. I thought it was interesting too, that she didn't have a dx. It seems like she had been diagnosed with other things in the past: RAD, ODD. Also, given that she had been hospitalized it seems that someone would've suggested a diagnosis of ASD. What would be a possible reason for not pursuing an official diagnosis?

     

    Hmmm, I didn't think about ASD for Charlotte. I guess since the audience doesn't know what other friendships she has and what they are like, it is hard to say. The only experience I have with preteen girls is my own from 20+ years ago and, if I remember correctly, there was some overlap between childlike activities and more grown up pursuits at that age. For example, I had one friend who I would play Cabbage Patch dolls with beyond the age where it would be considered typical (probably up to 12ish), but we were aware that we were probably too old for it and we didn't do it when we were around the other members of our friend group. So, I think it would be possible for Charlotte to have Maya as a friend for the part of herself that wants to hold onto childhood interests and then have other friendships that fulfill other needs. I hope that their friendship will last too.

     

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