From the Mouth of Charlie Watts

By Kelly Watts

From the Mouth of Charlie Watts is a collection of short stories featuring conversations with the Autistic son of the author. The quotes were compiled over the last year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469125961

Kelly Watts

Kelly Watts is a resident of Alabaster, Alabama., where she lives with her husband, Carl, and their children. She likes to spend her time writing, playing the violin and volunteering at local schools. This is her first book.

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Copyright © 2012 by Kelly Watts.

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For Carl,

Thanks for showing me the true meaning

of for better or for worse.

I love you.

I wish I could tell you that I remember the devastating feeling of having my child diagnosed with autism, but the truth is, I can’t. Oh, I can remember how I was then. I was a mess. I do remember thinking that I wouldn’t be able to handle something like this. I may have cried for over a year. It all seems like a blur. I was a new mother, but more importantly, I was a new mother that had no idea how to raise a child. I wasn’t one of those women who felt like they just had to have children to be complete. I never was one to babysit other people’s kids, so I had very little experience with babies. Charlie was a good baby. He very rarely cried, even when he would fall or get shots. I thought I was just lucky. I had the best baby in the entire world. Luckily, I didn’t go around spouting off about it because fate had other ideas for me. He was diagnosed with autism by his regular pediatrician when he was about three due to the fact that he wasn’t reaching milestones—the most important one being speech—even though he seemed very intelligent. He had mastered the large muscle milestones such as walking very early, but the small motor and verbal milestones were well behind his peers. He would babble for hours on end to himself, but it wasn’t something any of his family could understand. He also exhibited other characteristics such as flapping and toe walking. The most awe-inspiring of his traits was that he could see an advertisement for something and immediately recognize it by its name or, more accurately, by its logo. For example, he seemed really interested in cars. You could point to a car, and if he could see its symbol, he could tell you what it was. He never missed. Not once. Of course, he couldn’t tell you his name or speak in sentences, but if you needed to know the make of a car, he was your man. Another time, we were at my friend Michelle Bible’s house. Her husband is a pharmaceuticals sales representative, and they had a night-light with the word Ambien on it and its logo. Charlie pointed to it and said, Ambien. He was three. Michelle asked me if he could read. I told her that he couldn’t, but she was impressed nonetheless.

His regular pediatrician sent us to a specialized center to have a diagnosis made, but they told us that he was just of low IQ and sent us on our way. I knew immediately that that was erroneous information. His doctor agreed with me, but instead of pursuing another diagnosis, we became proactive in early intervention. We set him up in speech and occupational therapy classes to help him get ready for school.

Once he was in school, we immediately recognized that he would need special education. While he has an extraordinary memory, he can only remember things he’s actually interested in, which did not include school-related topics. He was, however, interested in reading and learned to do that quite easily. I knew he loved for me to read to him. He would literally sit for as long as I needed him to while I read to him. I guess he decided he liked books early on. Other than reading though, he was having a hard time. His school really needed a diagnosis before he could start receiving special services. I don’t know why. You would think struggling would count as a good-enough reason, but apparently not. So the school system set us up with a child psychiatrist.

When we left her office, she had given us a diagnosis of autism with very little reservation. As soon as Charlie began receiving special education, he began to do fairly well. All his teachers loved him. Every teacher that I’ve ever spoken to says that Charlie is one of their favorite students. In fact, Charlie seems to be a delight to everyone he comes in contact with. While he’s rigid in his scheduling, he is very adaptable to other activities, socially speaking. Adults and children alike tend to like him.

He’s got a great sense of humor, but he has some relatively strange behaviors. Take for instance, he still carries around a stuffed bear and puppy. The stuffed bear’s name is Joey, and the puppy’s name is Puppy. Original, I know. He tells everyone, and I’m convinced that he believes it, that Joey is his baby brother. He even gets mad if you call him a stuffed animal. So don’t. He is also a movie fanatic. If he likes a movie, he can pretty much recite the dialogue verbatim, including voices and inflections. It’s a marvel. Well, sometimes it’s a marvel. Other times, it gets on my nerves because I have to hear the same things over and over and over. However, I realize that all children can get on your nerves sometimes, so I still feel lucky that he’s mine.

What started out as a nightmare has turned into a very special gift to our family. Charlie is a delightful young