Tag

A couple of days ago, I had to pick Drew up from the school. His chess club was having a pizza party. I arrived a few minutes early, and he wanted to stay longer, so I sat down and waited for him.

Drew was drinking root beer, so he was in heaven. Some of the kids had been drinking Mountain Dew. They were wildly running around the cafeteria playing tag. Drew loves playing tag. Whenever I question him about friends at school and who he plays with, trying to get a sense of how things are, he tells me the kids he plays tag with.

I watched him for a minute when a realization came to me. Drew was running around, a smile on his face, next to the kids, around the kids, on the outside of the group of kids. He was running among them, but there was absolutely no interaction going on. Nobody tagged him; he didn't tag anyone. Nobody talked to him; he didn't talk to anyone. It was like he wasn't there. It was different from the other kids there.

It didn't matter to Drew; he was having a blast. To him, he was playing tag. But he wasn't really playing with them.

When I mentioned this to the school psych yesterday, she said this is very typical of kids on the autism spectrum. They play next to other kids.

I have been through a lot, and I can handle a lot of things. But this hurts my heart.

I just want to know for sure what's going on with him. This week has been rough.