Superman: MAN OF STEEL

My husband and I recently took our 16 year old Aspie son to the movies to see
MAN OF STEEL.

Now, our 16 year old is an amazing person. He has very high intelligence and is incredibly loving, caring, and spiritual. Most people do not realize how far he has come. As a child, we would be dealing with 5-10 MAJOR melt downs every week. And when I say MAJOR, I mean on the ground...out of control...screaming....running away from the situation....trying to block out everything, type melt downs. Most of his meltdowns were triggered by something...over-stimulation, unfair situations, too much repetitive noise, etc. He has worked so very hard to learn to control his behavior!! And he has come so far!! At times, it seems that he is actually more developed, now, than most kids his age BECAUSE of the life lessons he has faced and overcome. As all Aspie kids have differing attributes, it is sometimes easy and sometimes difficult to tell if a child is an Aspie kid or not. Such was the case with our oldest Aspie son. Most students his age, and many adults, would look at the discrepancy between his mental ability and behavioral or emotional activity and make the judgment that he was just a spoiled kid pitching fits. This was the most frustrating dilemma. Those students and adults were not open to understanding and learning about Asperger's. They were not open to understanding him. They were very comfortable in their judgment. Very comfortable with judging.
I tell you all of this as back story to the remainder of this post.

So, my husband and I decide to go see MAN OF STEEL. It was only on a whim that I suggested that our son accompany us on our date-night. I thought he would enjoy the movie. About 10 minutes into the film, a scene take place where the young Clark Kent (about age 10-12) is in class back in Kansas. The teacher is asking him a question. The young Clark tries to focus on the situation at hand, but he keeps being distracted by his in-depth ability to hear every sound (tapping pencils, buzz of the fluorescent lights, etc.)....and his ability to see things that most people can not see (refracted light from the windows, the patterns made by shadows, etc.). The teacher, with much frustration and impatience, continues to ask Clark the question at hand. Clark is trying so hard to focus...but just can not overcome the amount of external sensory information that is coming at him. He runs from the classroom and locks himself in the broom closet. (By this point, I am already crying my eyes out...it just looked so much like a melt down.) The teacher calls his mother, who very lovingly goes up to school. She kneels next to the door and talks Clark out of the situation...using relaxation techniques very reminiscent to a relaxation meditation that I used to use with our son to help him relax out of a melt down. Well, needless to say, I was WEEPING by the time the scene ended. It was at that point that I realized SUPERMAN IS AN ASPIE KID!!! And, my Aspie kids will be SUPERMEN!!! The character even grew up to be seen as a loner...yet one who cares for his fellow man.....he just doesn't know how to assimilate to society. He isn't comfortable with his abilities.....abilities that most people do not have or do not understand. YES, SUPERMAN IS AN ASPIE KID!!!!

After the movie, my son approached me about the similarities between young Clark and himself. He is very intuitive and I knew that he would recognize the connection. We discussed these similarities and how Clark eventually was able to use his special powers for good. I challenged him to do the same......
I hope that he will.