I've always had this sinking feeling Jaylen has a 6th sense. However, kids with Autism don't have the best eye contact, so it could be related to that. When he looks past me at something over my shoulder, I get chills. It freaks me out when I can tell something caught his eye, yet nothing is there when I turn to look.
The boys and I went to feed my mom's cats while she was out of town. Jaylen yelled at Xavi to be quiet. When I told him that was rude he said, "Well I want to hear the man that's up there" as he pointed up. Since the 3 of use were downstairs, supposedly alone in the house, a lump in began to form in my throat and goosebumps materialized over 98% of my body. I frantically calmly asked him who he heard and where. He just pointed up. "Upstairs you mean?" "No, just up there." And that was it, his thoughts had moved on. Needless to say, we left...quickly.
I never got a straight answer of where he thought the voice was coming from or what it was saying.
It was either burglars in my mom's house, dead people, or Jesus, none of whom I was ready to meet just then.
There have been other things, like him telling my sister to drive carefully, then eerily cocking his head to the side and saying, "the brakes" when we asked why. Or the time he just blurted out, "There's a fire at Grandma's!" with no explanation as I urgently dialed my mom (there was no fire by the way).
Long time readers of Mommy To Two Boys may know the movie the Sixth Sense totally messed me up for life. I still have to jump into bed from 4 feet away because of that little girl, you know the one I'm talking about, with Munchhausen's. I covered my eyes throughout most of the film in the theater and haven't watched, nor will ever watch, it again.
Who do I blame for my child getting Haley Joel Osmant's ability? Is someone with great powers messing with me? I don't think so.
Is this retribution for being scared of a movie starring Donnie-D from NKOTB? Probably.
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Comments (18)
Beyond having Autism, I'm assuming your boy is still a little kid. He's got a big imagination.
Did he watch too many thriller/horror movies? Do you tell him ghost stories? Is he hallucinating? Does he watch the news channel a lot?
Very interesting. It is possible but perhaps you're reading too much into things.
P.S.- "The Sixth Sense" is one of my favorite movies, and perhaps the best ghost movie of all time.
*Xanga's Batman Out*
sometimes ppl just have that connection to things. i know a little girl who literally talks with animals. and they dont even have to be saying anything! you know the saying we only use 10% of our brains? you know the movie rain man? in the movie someone drops matches or something and he can count all of them in seconds. that is an over stimulated part that makes them amazing at that ability. perhaps people with austism each use a different part than we would normally use. and that allows them to connect in a way completely different. perhaps thats what your boy has. an overly situmlated part of the brain. my sister who was borderline austistic as a little girl use to tell me stories of a little boy that came to play with her all the time. a few weeks later she came to me and said she needed to find someone else to play with cuz her friend had been chopped up and put into the trash! a few weeks later she warned us that someone in the family would die. and it actually happened (tho alittle farther down the road than she said) it happens and it does freak ppl out but.... what else can we do other than support and encourage!
It could always be his imagination. He is just a kid. As a child, my elaborate imagination created things for me that were vivid enough to me for other people to be freaked out, and getting me to break the routine was impossible, no matter how annoying it got. So it's important to consider that.
However, worst case scenario would actually be that he's hallucinating, so just in case, might want to bring the behavior up with a doctor, maybe see a child psychologist for some sort of analysis. It's hard to pick out a child that is having hallucinations or delusions from one who just has a vivid imagination, so it could be hard, but then, it's important to try and make sure, simply because those things could be so harmful if they're allowed to continue, so if you're going to worry, I'd be more worried about medical issues here, because that's what is REALLY dangerous.
And then, while it's highly unlikely, if it is paranormal, while I have not seen The Sixth Sense, basically, real paranormal phenomena are not at all like in the movies. One of the theories is that kids are more sensitive period, so on the off chance it is something truly paranormal, he could simply grow out of being sensitive to it. The theory is posed that we ALL start out on some level "sensitive" and more or less, the majority do grow out of it. Even if he doesn't, it's not like some horror movie, and it's hard to understand, because, well, it's something none of us TRULY understand. We can only draw conclusions and state hypotheses, but from what I've learned through my profound interest in paranormal phenomena these past few years is they are truly rarely ever dangerous, and when they ARE it takes someone doing something wrong to make it dangerous (just stay away from ouija boards, okay?). Otherwise, in reality, seems pretty harmless. If it does end up being like that, it's something to take one day at a time.
Though honestly, particularly because it seems he's just doing and saying odd things that don't appear to have any correlation with real life events, it seems pretty likely he could easily just be imagining things, or worst case scenario, hallucinating.
Your kid has a mental disability and you take his hallucinations seriously? Who is the child and who is the adult? Or for that matter, who is the mentally capable person and who has problems? One would hope you're more capable than your child. If he's visually and audibly hallucinating things and it concerns you, you should take him to the doctor to get tested for other problems. Otherwise, your kid is autistic- he's going to be weird. Shrug it off or get it checked out.
@Kyuketsuki_no_Megami@xanga - dude chill. this came off as pretty aggressive and the OP doesn't need that.
@millionofstars@xanga - Haha, yes, because the respect of a complete stranger on the internet who has no idea who I am and who I will never meet is really a major priority of mine. Look, kids are weird in general. Kids with autisim are also weird (would you say they're different from other kids? tsk, tsk, we mustn't discriminate) but are susceptible to more weirdness due to their condition. This is just the way it is. Trying to tip-toe around it is treating them 'differently' which you already claim is wrong, so best not to be a hypocrite about it.
in b4: "but you've never worked with autistic kids baawwwwwwww," because I have.
@Kyuketsuki_no_Megami@xanga - I agree with this.
@redxfantasy@xanga - Most people sense the feelings of those around them. This is a normal human function called empathy. It doesn't mean you're psychic.
My son is not autistic, but has Confusional Arousal. With one recurring theme. The man who is hurting him...and always touching/about to touch me. I've been told to run by my son, told to get out...and his face is TRUE FEAR.
I was cool...until I saw Insidious...
Now it takes everything in me not to freak the hell out.
I do believe in paranormal, but I don't believe in it to an extreme sense (I believe there is a scientific explanation for most things). Supposedly its a "gift" that has been passed down for generations in my family. I have very vivid memories of the things I saw as a child...that were not dreams or my imagination.
I guess the thing is...my child does really hallucinate.
I know people are probably going to laugh at this, but sometimes kids have spiritual gifts to see things (ghosts, angel, demons, auras, etc), and then they grow up as adults (and are still doing it) and wonder why. of course, that's if all over options have been covered already like, his imagination....
The boy hears voices normal people don't hear and sees things we don't really see. I don't know. I'd be worried right when he says something about a fire in a Grandma's house. That needs heavy explanation there.
Go watch Paranormal Activity. :3
Well, it could not be a 6th sense but perhaps Schitzophrenia. It's not something I'm sure you'd like to hear, but people with Schitzophrenia hear and see people that don't exist.
@Kyuketsuki_no_Megami@xanga - no you shouldn't give a shit about some stranger (who's not even a real person with feelings, just some abstraction on the internet) you'll never meet. we should all always put ourselves first and not ever be concerned with how we make other people feel. this makes us good people.
also, the whole treating autistic kids different bit? i'm going to school for this. i deal with this on a daily basis and treat them just like every day kids. hypocrisy is not the case here in the least, thank you. because i don't think saying things in an agressive way to people in difficult circumstances (most people are going thru something tough) is cool.
i'm so wrong for caring about other people.
ps- just because you don't believe in psychics or spirituality, doesn't mean it's not real or other people don't believe it. ...respect it.
Jean, I see that you're getting more love notes from the Xanga brain trust. What is with some of the people commenting here and their love of the "you're kids are effed, just deal with it" attitude towards autism? What are they bitter that we would dare call attention to our glorious lives as parents of children with disabilities? Are we whining too much for you? It's fascinating to me that someone would go out of their way to comment at all if that is their attitude.
For those of you who are unaware, this is posted to a website called autisable.com...an AUTISM website that is part of Xanga. I'm guessing that sometimes our posts get pushed out generally to the great unwashed at xanga.com, and that this is where some of these comments come from...? But you should know that they are orignally posted to AUTISABLE.COM. Is that OK with you? Should we run our posts through your judge-inator next time before we submit them? Should we request to keep them at autisable.com so as not to waste your precious time reading our hypocrisy?
@RazielV@xanga - I watched Paranormal Activity and was bored out of my mind. How was it scary? You want to watch a horror movie?
127 Hours with James Franco