mind reader

One time when my son was 12 he walked into the room and started talking to me, but he sounded like he was in the middle of a conversation. I interrupted him and asked "Wait, what are you talking about?" He paused and looked puzzled, then responded "Oh, I forgot that you can't always read my mind."

For future discipline's sake I decided to let him continue to believe that I can sometimes read his mind.

My son has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. Later after this incident I found out that often people with autism do believe that everyone can read their minds. The workings of an autistic mind is so interesting. Now that my son is 16 he is starting to give me insights into his mind. He has long had problems with music which bothered me to no end...how can someone not like music? Slowly video game music became okay...then songs based on video games or from movies. Recently we were listening to "Coward" by Vic Chesnutt. He listened intently then after it was over he said "Whoa...that song made pictures in my head." I told him that was what most songs were supposed to do. He then told me that the reason he has problems with music is because he hears all the parts separately, each instrument and voice is separate. He doesn't usually hear them all together in a cohesive manner. Thus music was too difficult to listen to.