Hi all,

I hope this story proved both entertaining and educational. I'd like to dedicate it to my son, who was the inspiration for Todd. Like Todd, Andy numbers among his special interests lights and pumpkins. (The interest in Superman is all my own.) Todd is quite similar to Andy in other respects as well, such as in the ways he displays his emotions and in the fact that he uses echolalia.

But Todd is definitely NOT Andy. Andy, for example, uses echolalia in a more limited, but more communicative, fashion. Unfortunately, Andy's speech is so poorly articulated that people who do not know him well would never be able to understand him. We are working on having him use the iPad app Proloquo2Go to communicate. He has been making nice progress with it. Also, Andy's meltdowns are mercifully few these days. Andy has never shown any desire to take a pumpkin outside of the house, although he does want a plastic pumpkin to remain in our bay window year round. And although Andy did have a time in his life where the only hugs he liked were the 'stealth hugs' he gave, those days are past. He enjoys being given hugs now.

A few odds and ends that I couldn't fit into the story: Everything I mentioned about autism in the story is true to the best of my knowledge, including how some children use echolalia as their pathway into communicative speech. The ending, however, did not reflect a typical first use of communicative speech. Much more typical is to use speech to 'mand' (i.e., to make requests/demands/commands). What Todd apparently used his speech for at the end was for a social function of speech which would in real life have likely come much later in his development, if it came at all. So now you, as a reader of the story, have a choice: Either accept that Todd's development did not follow that of a typical child with autism* or else interpret the story ending as something more depressing: Todd may have just been spouting his usual non-communicative echolalia and Jerome may have been indulging in wishful thinking and just read much more into it than Todd had intended. I, personally, prefer the former interpretation, but I purposely left the story open to the latter interpretation for the sake of realism.

*Then again, a 'typical child with autism' is a bit of an oxymoron. There is a saying within the autism community: If you've met one child with autism, you've met -- ONE child with autism. People on the spectrum are at least as varied as those not on it. Take this story as describing one person on the spectrum, but please do not assume that all people with autism are like Todd, any more than you would assume that every neurotypical human is like Lois or every Kryptonian like Clark.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the English assignment was that resulted in the opening essay, Mrs. Nelson gave the class the following prompt: Write an essay about someone you know. Describe the person vividly enough to make the readers feel as if they know him or her as well. Suppose you could change one thing about that person; what would it be?

As always, all feedback welcomed. Also welcomed are any questions you may have about autism or what it is like being the Mom of a child with autism.

Joy,

Lynn

What a touching story. Great description of Todd and his brother Jerome's concerns about him. I love the idea of a Superman quote being part of his efforts to communicate.

Joan

Like!

I really enjoyed this fic Lynn and found it VERY educational. I recently watched the movie Temple Grandin and really enjoyed it. She is a Ph.D. now at a University in Colorado!

Adorable! Touching. Laura

It was really a touching story Lynn. It makes me think about my little brother, Adam. He is almost four years old and he has Down syndrome. I know someday he will succeed to communicate in simple ways, but for now he only uses his hands and make some noises. When he hurts himself, he doesn't want to cry and does not let himself be comforted.
He is the sun of my life, I love him and he also shows me his love.

I know it must not be easy everyday but we love them so much. Thank you for this story.

Awww.... that was very educational and entertaining too! - I think you balanced both of those aspects well in the fic. Loved how you described Todd in Jerome's essay and his Superman special interest .

Thanks for sharing!

Joan, thank you. Now you know why I had asked in the fanfic-related folder for anything Superman may have said on TV. I needed a good quote for the story.

RKN, thanks.

Stephnachia, when Andy was first diagnosed, his neurologist directed me to read some of Temple Grandin's books. That was one of the best pieces of advice anyone gave me. Her books were insightful, educational, and inspirational.

Laura, 'touching' seems to be a common thread in the feedback, and that pleases me no end.

Annalina, Adam is lucky to have such an adoring big sister.

DW, thank you. I'm glad the story struck a good balance for you. As I am sure is obvious, this story holds a special significance to me; it will undoubtedly remain as one of my personal favourites of my own stories. But I knew that in the interests of trying to promote autism awareness, I ran the risk of having the story sound a bit preachy. I tried hard to avoid that trap. I'm glad I succeeded.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I always love to receive comments on any story I write, but I am especially appreciative of the comments left for this one.

Joy,
Lynn

Thank you for you kind words, Lynn.

Lynn

You are a special person. Thank you for an excellent story.

Lynn, thank you for writing this beautiful story. When I saw that the kid's name was Jerome, I wondered if maybe these were LnC's children, and then I began to wonder if Todd's fascination with Superman stemmed from being somehow aware that his father was Big Blue. But ultimately, it doesn't matter--this story is completely lovely either way. By any chance, could we have a little more of these two?

Morgana, thank you for your kind words.

Queen of the Capes, congratulations. You found the Easter egg. I wove several subtle (I hope) hints into the story that Todd and Jerome might be L&C's kids. I tried to make the hints neither obvious nor definitive, and I had been wondering whether anyone would pick up on them.

Another piece of autism trivia: Many people on the spectrum are very attuned to their visual sense, and observe fine details that escape the attention of most neurotypical individuals. It therefore seemed reasonable to me to posit that Todd would easily notice what no one else in the L&C-verse has: that CK=S. If the boys are L&C's children (and I haven't completely answered that question in my own mind), Todd's awareness of Superman's real persona would indeed be the true reason for his fascination, or at least one component of it.

That was my biggest stumbling block to making them L&C's kids: Jerome is apparently not in on the secret yet, and I would imagine that L&C would have told him by this point. After all, he would be at an age where he might start developing powers of his own soon. Then again, maybe his speculations about Todd's interests in Superman were his attempts to divert attention from the real reason. After all, he didn't speculate about Todd's fascination with pumpkins or lights.

I would love to write more about Todd and Jerome. I've put in a request to my muse for another story with them. Unfortunately, she has a poor track record of responding to my requests.

Joy,
Lynn

EEE! I was right!
Hm, good point... then again, Clark does have a fairly poor track record when it comes to telling his secret at the appropriate time, and I've seen plenty of fics where the secret didn't come up until *after* the kid started showing signs of superness. Maybe LnC are planing to tell him in the not-too-distant future? Or like some of those other fics, maybe they're waiting to see if he'll even develop powers, thus warranting a need to know at all. Either explanation is plausable.

If your muse doesn't return your calls, do you want to borrow mine?

I LOVED this story!

I am an elementary teacher in a regular ed classroom, but I have previously taught 2 boys that were at different places on the autism spectrum. I saw a sign recently that said, "If you've seen one autistic child, you've seen ONE autistic child." I wish I knew the right place to give credit for that line because it is so true! Every autistic child is different in their own unique way, and even though there may be some similarities, every child is different.

Thank you for sharing such a touching story! I saw glimpses of "my boys" in some of your descriptions of Todd. What a beautiful story!

I was so anxious to leave my feedback that I didn't read what you had written at the beginning of this thread. Duh! I quoted something that you had already quoted. Sorry about that!

QotC wrote: I'd love to. Your muse is extremely creative.

Mel, it's nice to see that Todd 'rang true' for you. And no apologies necessary for the quote in the first post. I'm honoured that you liked the story enough that you were that eager to leave feedback.

Joy,
Lynn