Putting my Thinking Cap on...

I was hyperlexic. Only recently have I discovered that the word “hyperlexic” is being used as a diagnosis on the spectral line of autism, because I had always understood “hyperlexic” to simply mean reading at a very early age. According to my mom, I wasn’t much of a talker as a toddler, but I used to sit on her lap during church and she would point to each word in the hymnal as the congregation sang, until one day she realized I was singing along. To be honest, I never remember NOT reading.

In Kindergarten, at the small private school I attended, our teacher would divide us into groups during our reading time. There were approximately four of us in my group and all of us were reading. A wonderful woman who was retired and volunteered a couple hours a day in our classroom facilitated our group. I remember quite well, that before we began reading, she would instruct us to put on our “thinking caps”, upon which we would each put an imaginary cap upon our heads. To this day, I refer to my imaginary “thinking cap”. As many of us do, I wear many hats in my life, but there are some things, conversations, posts, NPR programs that require me to put on my “thinking cap”. I don’t wear it all the time, but always come out more enlightened and fulfilled when I do…

I am certain that nearly all of the twelve readers who read this also read Kristina Chew’s site (and if you don’t I suggest you do so RIGHT NOW), so everyone reading this post is certainly aware of how she interweaves the unedited touching and raw moments of her life with her little best friend, with mythology, Latin and Greek, and ABA all the while completely free of judgment, self-rieghtousness, and most importantly DISCRIMINATION. Her blog is one of the most inclusive blogs I have read. As a former five year Latin student, an ABA consultant (who does not appreciate references to Skinner and Tabula Rasa), a mythology lover, who pours over the works of Joseph Campbell and an individual who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, I find Kristina’s writings, touching, thought-provoking, breath-taking, heart-breaking and heart-warming all at the same time. Her latest posts on the poetry in autism are simply stunning. They have got me thinking about how much autism is indeed like poetry… beautiful, stunning, amusing, egnimatic, capricious, paradoxical, confusing and prophetic, all at once. Some people don’t even try to bother to understand poetry, while others think they understand the meaning, based on superficial one time reading. But for the most part, poetry…real poetry has so many levels and complexities that go far beyond that…Autism has many analogies, but I am not surprised that Kristina’s analogy resonates the strongest with me.

I know I need to put on my thinking cap whenever I go to visit Kristina, but if I ever forget to do so, I always leave Kristina’s place with my thinking (and feeling) cap fitted quite snugly on top of my head…I am quite certain that she has plenty of experience putting “thinking caps” on her own as well as other people's heads.