RJ at the zoo

This weekend I chose to start my research in a more interesting way than to sit in front of my computer reading jargon-filled scholarly articles. I wanted first-hand experience with an autistic child and I decided it would be most interesting (and relevant to my research) if it was in a setting that involved animals. So I met up with RJ and his mother and we went to the zoo for a day.

On the way to the zoo, RJ took a little nap, so I had a chance to learn a little bit more about how RJ's life is different because of autism. She told me that RJ, and most autistic children, have sensory problems, which means that they are sensitive to the textures of the food they eat and often won't eat certain foods; RJ, for example, won't eat mashed potatoes because of their mushy texture, but rather prefers chicken nuggets from McDonalds that are crunchy, but not too hard. Another common thing that autistic children face is a very abnormal sleep schedule caused by the body's inability to recognize the difference between night and day. To counter this, Sasha keeps RJ on a very tight sleeping schedule by putting him to bed and waking him up at roughly the same time each day, and limiting his naps throughout the day.

But the hardest part about living with autism for RJ is his limited vocabulary. At 2 years old, RJ should be able to put full sentences together and effectively tell Sasha what he wants or needs; however, it is very common for autistic children to start talking later than children without autism. This was very evident to me, because when I first met RJ, all I knew was that he was very excited to be in the car with me. As I spent more time with him, it was a little easier to figure out what he wanted, especially through facial expressions, which he used quite well.

When we got to the zoo, it seemed like RJ wasn't too sure at first what to expect. He couldn't figure out what we were doing there, so he spent more time staying close to mom. The first exhibit we saw was the monkeys, which happened to be RJ's favorite. Immediately he was running up to the glass, and you could see his little eyes light up. From there we moved from building to building, looking at everything we could possibly see, and with each building RJ was more and more excited. 

By the time we left it was evident that animals made RJ very happy. Even though he didn't know me very well, he wanted to hold my hand and drag me from exhibit to exhibit. When he couldn't see well enough he would put his arms up and say "up!" to tell me he wanted me to pick him up and show him what he was missing. I felt like I learned a lot from RJ in the few hours we spent together. I think spending time with him at the zoo will be helpful when working on my research because I understand autism better and I can relate what I read with what RJ taught me. I'm sure RJ and I will continue to be great friends. I look forward to spending more time with both him and his mother.

As always, here are some pictures I snapped while we were at the zoo...

A very excited RJ in between exhibits

Amazed by the lion walking around

He thought the giraffes were so cool!