My grandson, PJ is brilliant! There is no doubt about that. All someone has to do is spend some time with him and they can see how fantastic he is. Although he primarily likes to keep to himself – do his own thing – he has some favorite people and things that he loves, and when he is ready, he likes to spend time with them. Outside of his parents and my husband and I, he loves his loves his family in North Carolina, but especially his grandma, BD, who he calls “Mama”, in North Carolina a whole lot! She interacts with him like no one else! PJ gets very excited when he sees her. He loves to lay on her bed. She sits on the floor and plays games with him. In addition to his grandma BD, he loves his siblings. His sister Nya constantly feeds him his favorite snacks. His sister Tay loves to entertain him. PJ has the most adorable laugh and look on his face when he gets excited. His little brother Silas, is always checking on him to make sure he is okay. PJ’s non-people favorites that he can carry are his books and sock monkey toys. But, put music in front of him and he is in another world.
PJ doesn’t like noise. He covers his ears when he hears certain sounds. He doesn’t object to being in a crowd because he finds his spot to be to himself. As was mentioned before, language is not his strong suite. He is not as verbally communicative as some other autistic individuals and what you’ll hear from him is called echolalia (meaningless repetition of another person’s spoken words…i.e. tv shows, common requests, demands, or reprimands). Therefore, to assist me in telling PJ’s story, I’ve decided to use cartoon pictorial expressions via a strip entitled Understanding the Spectrum, Introducing Archie.
Comics created and illustrated by Rebecca Burgess