Writing About Autism Spectrum

I've been floating around some ideas about writing something in the MG range from the viewpoint of a kid on the PDD spectrum. I wonder if it's been overdone, or if there's an interest, or if I could even pull it off. I've only finished a portion of Mockingbird, but haven't discovered any others to get a feel for what's available.

The way the ideas are coming, it would be more on the lines of a journal type thing, but hopefully I can pin down a specific plot to it all.

Does anyone have any recommendations or ideas about this? My son has just mentioned that he'd like to read a book that was somewhat about him, but not really about him, per se. His life is pretty boring, so I'd need a lot of ideas to flesh it out.

Thanks for any comments.

Thanks so much, ladies, for all the great suggestions.

I will check out all the MG books mentioned, but not the YA - I don't think he'd read them, although I could read them to him and he would probably comprehend most of it.

I think my biggest problem would be in trying to realistically address his inability to relate to kids his own age without making him angry. The kids like him, but he often feels they don't, but if I ask him about it he will insist he has lots of friends. It's a struggle and something I need to be sensitive about.

I don't know. Maybe I should just start writing some of what's in my head and put it aside, and go back to it later to see if it's anything I can develop.

Thanks again for the help and all the great suggestions.

Thank you Suki. For some reason that book sounds very familiar to me. Perhaps I read it and forgot all about it, but I will definitely check it out again.



Thanks, Judy. I think you're right about the perception thing - I don't want the character coming off as a jerk.

But, I've always been very honest with my own son, and I know that even though he often perceives the other kids as bullies, I've been active often enough in the classroom that I can sort of help him see that they aren't always as he perceives them. Then, he says that it's only because I'm there, and we have to go through it again.

I probably can't pull this off, but I wanted to give it a try. Even if it's only as an exercise in giving us opportunities to examine feelings and perceptions. I think it might help him.

And I definitely want to read some of those books with him. Just this morning he asked again what autism is, and there's just so much that I can't explain, so I hope reading and finding people (characters) he can find some identity with might be helpful. But again, it may not. His thinking processes baffle me.

Then he also is asking lots and lots of questions about his birth family that I can't answer. The ones I can break my heart, so it's all good when i can find something positive to help him deal.

Thanks so much for all the comments, insights and encouragement! My brain is bombarding me with ideas and instances, but a plot is still lacking, unfortunately.

Interesting comment about the quizzing and the encouragement for unacceptable behaviors, Ruth.

Just the other day he was out with his case manager. He came home very upset and angry. He is just taking a huge interest in baseball, and they were at the park tossing the ball back and forth when two girls from school showed up. In his efforts to garner some female attention, my son got hit in the head with the ball, which, of course, became a huge source of embarrassment. He was sure the girls would laugh at him. So he started shouting "son of a B#st#rd" at his case manager.

When his CM left (he's a young kid that is so mild-mannered and takes everything in stride and I absolutely adore him), I went in to discuss language with my son. He does not hear (many) bad words at home, and I was shocked at the usage. I asked him what he had said, and he bluntly told me. I told him that was an unacceptable word for him to use, and he replied that he did it to avoid using the really bad word.

Of course I had to know what the bad word was. He said, "You know, mom, the son of a mmm-mmm word. The one that rhymes with witch." I explained that the word he used was just as bad and he became very upset and said he didn't know that, and why hadn't anyone told him that. Upon further discussion, I discovered that the girls at school had told him that the word he used was an okay word, but that the witch word isn't.

If I hadn't seen the genuine hurt and confusion on his face, I never would have believed his story. I don't know how we've kept him so innocent in some ways, but I sooo don't appreciate the nasty little girls that are teaching him about pain and betrayal.

Thanks for the additional comments. I'm still fighting this.

I've been reading some of the suggested books. Loved Al Capone Does My Shirts and Rules. I'm working on The London Eye Mystery now, but so many of the British terms are unfamiliar to me so it's going a bit slow. I'm not crazy about his habit of shaking his hand out. I don't know why that bothers me so much, but maybe simply because it seems so stressed.

Most of the recommendations aren't available here, so I'm waiting for loaners to come in from other sources.

A plot is beginning to emerge in my thoughts, but it involves our town, and a lot of historical aspects that are unique to our town, so I'm not sure if that is going to work. It will be neat if it could, but anyone from around here would absolutely know it's about our town. Does that work?

Thanks for encouragement, Debbie. You posted at 1:11, which is my favorite time of day.

I've just about convinced myself to try this for NaNo. I've got much more research to do in the next couple of weeks.

And if I don't finish it, I don't really mind. I've failed at NaNo before, and survived the shame.