DJ M.

I promised a post on M’s interest in his “radio station” in a previous post.  M has loved music since the day he was born.   He has always tapped rhythmically, hummed and/or clicked to a beat.  When we moved to where we live now, we found that we received a radio station with good Christian music (our music of choice), Air1.  M has decided that he loves this station.  He listens to it almost all day long.  He types in their web address on the computer, or listens to it when his radio is receiving good signals.  His favorite DJ is Ashton.

Lately, he has decided, along with building his own church and running it, that he wants to also build a radio station broadcasting from that church.  He calls it KMBM FM.  For a while, he had this great setup in his playhut tent.  He had a small chair, his radio broadcasting, a microphone, headphones.  He has since moved his tent to another location and has yet to set it up again.  He made signs advertising the radio station.  He would listen to the radio and in between each song, give his call letters and talk a little to his audience.  He loved it so much that that was the first thing he did when he woke up, and the last thing he did before he went to bed.  One time, I came home from a mom’s homeschool function to find him sound asleep in the tent, with his headphones on and his microphone on his chest.  He has made signs for his station, one labeled “sound booth, SHHHH!”  Another for the door to his room with his station call letters, and our home phone number on it (he recently learned our phone number, and is SO proud to share it with me and practice it).  He was so obsessed with his radio station that I had to make rules.  The station could not be turned on until he woke up in the morning (after the sun rose), and it had to be turned off when the sun set.

This is an example of the hyperfocus some children with TS can have.  Children with TS can have social issues very similar to those with Asperger’s Syndrome.  They sometimes will be diagnosed with Asperger’s before they are diagnosed with TS.  My son seems to be more hyperfocused than many kids with TS I’ve met.  M has always had a hyperfocus of one sort or another.  His first one, when he was just 2 or so, was vacuums.  How they worked, the differences in tubes that attached to them, how the dust was sucked into them.  Then it progressed to anything with a cord, or even just the cord itself, then fans.  More recently, he has been focused on car’s engines, more specifically, the tailpipes.

Parenting through this hyperfocus is difficult.  On the one hand, I want him to fit in.  I don’t want people looking at him funny when he’s talking ad nauseum about Air1, and his radio station that he is creating.  But, on the other hand, he really enjoys this.  It is who he is, and what he enjoys.  I struggle with dual desires – my first that he is happy and doing what he enjoys, and the other that he fits in without sticking out, being made fun of, receiving funny looks.  He is learning so much from being able to immerse himself in his station.  He’s learned about radio waves, radio signals, what materials receive radio waves the best, and whether the size and shape of the receiving objects make a difference.  He’s practicing his spelling and reading.  So, in allowing him to immerse himself in radio stations, he’s covered science, math, language arts, even a little history.

I try to remind myself that many of the greatest, most brilliant, most creative people have had what we now call “disorders.”  I think there is a fine line between desiring M to fulfill his potential as successfully as possible and changing who he is.  I pray that God will give me wisdom as I continue on this journey with my unique, bright, son.

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