ds' reading is terrifying..

[Spinkle]

Apparently DS (6, ASD) is picking up reading so quickly now, according to his teacher, that he's nearly fluent.

Which is good in a lot of ways, but am now scratching my head wondering where the heck we go to next...

Just realised, that's a stupid thing to complain about. I'm normally here bleating on about stuff he can't/won't do....

Pipin ds was our personal sat nav for years.He used to make sounds like an indicator to prompt you to turn and we once didn't visit GPs for six weeks because a road was closed en route and he'd attack for not going the right way.Even now he navigates because if he has ever been somewhere once he never forgets. What amazes me is that he memorises the route from the routes we don't take rather than the one we do. So he watches avidly for every turn off and committing them to memory whilst seemingly not looking where we are going.

DNeph2, NT (so far...) and 3 years old does that, PipinJo. DNeph1 (17) just passed his driving test and DNeph2 has been out with him and DNeph1's Dad while he learns. He now shouts out "Slow down! Going to crash!" every so often, which adds to his surprisingly accurate directions to his Grandma's from his Mum's house.

I took him to a custom car show last summer and got some really odd looks going round the show and shine teaching him the difference between slammed, lowered and stock; beetle, Karmann Ghia, Golf and Polo; and, in a mate's Split bus, how to use the indicators and handbrake and how to turn the wheel to go round corners (keys out, obviously) I did actually acquire some help with the last one, he's a very fetching lad He absolutely loved the drag racing, sat still for 45 minutes and we only moved because he needed a wee

We are now working on teaching him the different car makes so whenever we take him out in the camper (he sits in the front in his seat, there's no seatbelts in the back) we name all the cars as we go past.

Lol, dd1 does the counting thing if you say '5 minutes', i have now explained to her how some people say 5 minutes but it may be a bit longer so now when i say '5 minutes' she says 'is that the real 5 minutes or your 5 minutes mummy?' .

Dd2 also did the spellin with magnetic letters at a very early age, i have avideo of her when she was 2 arranging the alphabet, she then started remembering logo'd and number plates and spelling them out with her manetic letters. Tonight she manged to read a book for the first time (she's now 4.9).

It's pretty sad that he has all these skills that are pretty useless or not needed tbh. It just emphasises what potential he could have had without the autism reallyBut it's a source of pride to him that he can perform such feats of memory so we tend to indulge him
Ds had a book called "know your road signs"here that covered all the signs you could possibly see both home and abroad and he loved that book and learnt every one.Maybe your ds would like it too.

But they are useless really I say that myself. He can manipulate numbers and memorise lists and routes but no real skills that will help him get on in life unless I get him into gambling because he's unbeatable at rummy because he memorises what's been dropped and what you pick up

Sorry, haven't read all of this thread but thought this info might be useful. We recently had a talk from a local independent bookshop at DD's school (she is NT and 7.5 years old). It was very good and they gave us these links afterwards (I won't try to make them proper links as I would have to test each one):

booktrust.org.uk/
carouselguide.co.uk/
achuka.co.uk/
lovereading4kids.co.uk/
sevenstories.org.uk/
lionunicornbooks.co.uk/
booksforkeeps.co.uk/

Hah! My husband's a computer programmer and a colleague of his paid of his mortgage and treated himself to a Porsche 911 writing betting software. There's definitely money to be made from these talents!

DH occasionally does some coding at home when he has stuff to work out and DS1 spends days afterwards trying to emulate what he was doing. We've just bought a BBC Micro so we can teach him some BASIC, but we've yet to find somewhere to set it up.

DS1 is also obsessed with cars. He's particularly interested in resgistration numbers and is slowly working out what year they relate to. He's also building up his own mental database of makes and models. That was a speciality of my brother as a very small child - he'd point at a car (not so many on the road, back then!) and tell us "that's a Datsun Sunny!"

Again, there's a downside. There's absolute hell to pay if we park anywhere near a Landrover or Range Rover and, the latest one, A Toyota Landcruiser. Some days, they're a bit bloody difficult to avoid. Specially considering our next door neighbour has a Freelander!

chances are he/she witll find a type of book and devour anything to do with it
sprinkle i have hfa aspergers, and the books i read at 7y included lord of the rings and simirilion..... expect lots of visits to the library and huge bills at bookstores

of corse if it comes to that, ebooks are a very nice alternitive especially if ther child is techinally minded as well

"purple I can see your Neph2 being in the car sales business when older at the age of 11 up to 15 yrs I was obsessed with cars make/model/engine sizes too whilst my friends were into boyfriends/fashion etc"

That would please his mum and DP no end, they're both (like me, it's how I met DP) into our volkswagens! I will get him shouting "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUB" every time we see one; it's turning into a family game now DP and I have a T25 camper which both DNeph and DNiece (ASD) love. Her because she can snuggle under the cushions on the bed, him because he can play teaparties with all the saucepans, the water, the (unlit) stove... It's a kid-sized house. He's not that bothered by my classic bug... yet mwah ha ha haaaa