Big Daddy Autism

Griffin can be quite literal, and fairly rigid in his thinking.  Figurative language, comprehension and inference deficiencies hamper Griffin’s communication ability.  Many times, people with autism have these communication impairments and social limitations which hinder their capacity to interact with others in society.  Griffin lacks certain basic intuitions and instincts that we take for granted.  An interesting example was his reaction to a joke he overheard me telling Mrs. Big Daddy on a recent road trip.  It went like this:

“How are a mother-in-law and a Slinky the same?  They’re both only fun when you push them down the stairs.”

While Lil Sister chuckled, and Mrs. Big Daddy punched me on the shoulder, Griffin yelped from the back seat;

“No, no, no, no.  Nana only has one floor in her house.”

It is probably clear to most kids, even those considerably younger than Griffin, that I wasn’t really going to push my mother-in-law down a flight of stairs.  It should have been obvious that there are much less detectable ways to get rid of pesky in-laws.

Griffin’s love of elevators and elevator videos is well known in these parts.  Recently he has started to specialize.  His newest love – vintage elevators.  Give him an old Otis and he is a happy kid.  Curious, Mrs. Big Daddy asked him if he knew what the word “vintage” meant to which Griffin responded, without hesitation,

“Vintage is old.  Like Nana.”

Maybe I’ve been telling too many mother-in-law jokes lately.  Sorry Big Nana.