Autism Imagination and a Preferred Topic, Plus Pizza
This blog is about a project my son did for his English class.
What did he do?
First, his English teacher assigned a book reading project for the semester. His students had to read a teacher-approved, substantial book over the course of the semester.
My son chose a book about trains. It’s a non-fictional book, but the teacher approved it.
He read it over the last three months and took notes that had to go into a notebook check that happened once a year (for a separate grade).
Even though he would have preferred a fiction book, the teacher liked the length and depth of this train book and gave it his go ahead.
This was good because trains are a preferred topic for my son. I knew he’d read it carefully and with great interest. He finished reading it last month.
Then what happened?
His teacher assigned his end-of-the-year project that relates to the reading of the book. He likes to not just do a standard book report, but something more interesting.
This semester it was…the pizza.
What does that mean?
Well, for my son it means he gets to do a report-like project with the theme of his favorite food.
Preferred topic plus preferred food.
This project was quite the autism-related project.
What did he do?
First, we obtained an extra large, un-used pizza box.
Second, he laid some straight track into pizza “slices.”
Third, we cut one sheet of thicker paper and one sheet of cardboard that would fit inside the box.
The thicker sheet was pasted on the top of the pizza box for the cover of the project. He cut out train photos from a magazine and pasted them on the top.
On the inside cardboard piece, my son glued the track and wrote down information from the book onto the slices (according to the instructions of the project).
Then, as an extra touch, he added some actual model trains on the tracks.
I’ll have to deliver the pizza box during lunch when it’s due this week. It’s a complicated box now, and it won’t make it through two thirds of the school day.
What does it all mean?
It means sometimes school projects work out quite well for my son with autism.
Not that typical kids don’t have things that they prefer, but many kids with autism certainly do have their preferred items.
Add a preferred item (trains) to a project with pizza, now that makes my son very happy.
In the past, he didn’t often relish artsy, creative-types of projects.
But, this one made him happy, and proud of his work!
Autism Imagination Mixed with a Preferred Topic, Plus Pizza
Here’s an article about obsessions in children with autism:
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