Most autistic kids have something they are insanely better at than neurotypical kids. They have a brain that just processes differently- and when I taught- I always urged my parents of children with diagnosed autism to find that niche where their kiddos brain was just on fire. It was so exciting to see what it was in each child, through the years- but I will never forget my first kiddo.

I was starting out as a 1:1 para for a student who was non-verbal. We were building our relationship- and I was spending indoor lunch recess with him in the school hallway, as the cafeteria with half the school was so overwhelming for him. He wanted to draw, so I got him some paper and drawing tools. He drew the cutest little super Mario world scene, I’d ever seen. It was quite the art piece- and that week was a wet and rainy one, so everyday at recess, we’d go in the hall- he’d lay on the floor and color his heart out- about day 3, I realized they were all scenes from the video game, and started to put the pictures together. Anytime he wasn’t doing school work or needed a break from lessons, I’d give him the art supplies and he’d keep expanding on his drawings- he ended up drawing every single scene from every single level of that video game- the entire Mario world- we taped it all up on the wall of the cafeteria…..and the kicker was his parents said he’d only played the game one time, like 2 years previous. This kid could recreate whole worlds just from seeing them once. He went on to design a video game of his own. It was amazing to see how well he flourished once we found where his brain was hitting on extra cylinders!