There are a lot of things that are harder when your kids have autism, but I am going to ignore most of those today. Today, we are going to talk about the version of autism that gives you a tiny mad scientist who will make you loose your mind. We are going to today, ignore the other kinds.

Tiny Mad Scientist

So, what do I mean by a tiny mad scientist? I mean, you made a child who needs to test all the laws of the universe for themselves. They believe in nothing they cannot taste, touch, break or destroy.

Testing Gravity

These adorable little people, will test gravity with the abandon of a college chemistry professor given liquid nitrogen for the first time. They will throw everything they can get, as far and hard as they can. They stand on the table to drop the ceramic plates and glasses onto your tile floor. They throw toys off the balcony to see what happens. Given the chance they will  throw their toy plane off a roof, just to see what happens.

These little scientists will not be upset by the destruction of their things. Their second question is, “Was that a fluke or will the rest break, too?” This is why you should be given a huge coupon to a home goods store every year while raising an autistic child. You are going to need a new set of dishes and glasses. And when buying toys? You are going to ask about their durability rating. Can they survive a 20 foot fall?

Once they are certain of the effects of gravity, they will need to explore other aspects of planet earth. What happens when you get things wet? Can I wash a ball of mud in the sink, until it is clean? Can I wash my electronic toys? Can I wash the cat? Not all things should be washed. And of course, I am skipping mentioning the toilet experiments. We all need a plumbing budget, too.

More Experiments

They will also need to check what is inside their toys and how they work. Nothing is safe from dissection either with care or with a hammer. But if we are lucky, they stick to their toys and not the TV or the microwave.

Those are not the only experiments. There will be random things in the freezer. Random concoctions of foods that you would never combine. There will be holes in the yard to look for worms and fossils. There will be more experiments than you want to know about.

But do you know what is wonderful? If you don’t stop them, your child will remain curious. They will be more interested in life than most people. They will know from experience more than other people their age. They will understand the how’s and why’s and what have you in ways the rest of us don’t. Their brains were not trying to break the world, but to understand it. And once they have that understanding, they can do amazing things with that knowledge.

I love my autistic kid with my whole heart. I know if you have one of these special kids, that you do too. I’ve homeschooled so that there is time for experiments and room to be curious and explore the world. My goal isn’t to stop the chaos, but to realize it isn’t chaos, it is experimentation. It is wonder and curiosity made into memories.