Woman's autistic 9yo wants to enter talent competition but doesn't think he has talent. CONCLUDED
"My son (9) entered himself in the school talent show wanting to name every single iPhone ever made...."
facts_n_opinions
Poor soul struggles to make friends. Both the school and our family are constantly trying to help, but my sweet little boy simply cannot hack it. Despite all this, we keep trying. He is on the spectrum and LOVES talking about space and Apple.
I am slowly teaching him social skills, but it takes a lot of face plantings for anything to stick. He absolutely drives us crazy with talking about Apple products over and over and over. One time he talked so much about Apple while I was driving that I zoned out to the point where I ran over a cone.
Last night he hit me with the ol' "I entered the talent show." I truly did not expect him to proceed with "I'm going to recite every iPhone ever made." Usually, I try my best not to hurt his feelings, but I simply cannot sit on the side lines and watch my child commit social suicide.
I gave an absolute no and reminded him all he talks about is Apple, and that his classmates do not want to sit there and listen to him talk about iPhones, again. He bawled in my arms and said he had no talent. I let him cry it out, then we looked online at different talent show ideas. He didn't like anything he saw.
Then a lightbulb went off. This kid loves sound... he likes loud, annoying sounds that make me want to scratch my noise sensitive ears out. So I downloaded him a DJ app and Tidal. We found 6 songs that carried a lot of the weight, the he began mixing.
HE WAS AWESOME! I couldn't believe how easily he took to it. By the end of the night he was able to echo out songs and do all of these cool sirens/sounds while waiting for the beat to drop. He even came up with fading out the last song and set a vibrating alarm on his watch (6 min) in order not to lose track of time.
We agreed that as soon as the alarm goes off, if he isn't done, he will move on to the last song and fade it out quickly. We packed him a cool little outfit to wear with mirrored sunglasses, his ipad and speaker, then off he went to school.
I have been praying all morning. His teacher was really excited for him and I hope he doesn't back out. Even if he does, I am hoping he will stick with this hobby and maybe enter in the next talent show.
Here were the top rated comments from readers:
coffeelover12345_
This is so sweet and wholesome ♥️ You sound like a great mum!
Icy_Industry_6012
I love this!! I woulda listened to your baby Steve Jobs talk about iPhones!! I hope he does great today!
BobbyVibrations_
I will pray for his continued success.
Artemis_Moon05
This did not go how I thought it would. That is SOOOO cool! Keep working on it. The right people will come around to be his friends, and the rest aren't worth his time. He is clearly too cool for all that.
jackjackj8ck
What a really smart and clever idea!! Please update us with how it went!
And this is a really great lesson for all kids to know your audience when presenting.
CheeseFace81
As a school administrator and Mom, I applaud your support in finding a talent he can feel proud to share (although, I personally think listing all the iPhones is pretty rad). What a blessing to have a wonderful Mom to advocate for him! Way to go Mama!!
Sw33tSkitty
This is so freaking heartwarming but I hope he understands that listing all the iPhones IS a talent. His ability to dedicate himself to something and learn about it IS a talent.
Like I get why you steered him away from it because that's not the kind of talent that you do at a talent show and it's super cool that he discovered a new hobby, but I hate that he took away from that that his other talents don't count as talents. Maybe someday he can create his own rap song that lists all the Apple products. :)
The OP responded with an update in the comments after the talent show:
facts_n_opinions
It went really great. Better than I expected honestly. The kids got up and danced and his teacher said this is a moment she will always remember. She told us she wasn't supposed to say this but he was the best out of all the kids. When he walked out of the door, he was beaming like a light. I think it's the first time he's ever felt connected with the kids.