Recently Added

Even though Ben’s official diagnosis is Autism, it’s been pretty clear for some time he’s an Asperger’s kid. Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism characterized by, among other things, a preoccupation with a particular subject of interest. Simply put, almost all Asperger’s kids have a “thing”. Something they like to do above all else - something about which they could talk or read seemingly endlessly. (I realize many typically-developing kids also have a “thing”, but trust me when I tell you, an Asperger’s kid’s dedication to his “thing” goes beyond typical.) Music has been Ben’s “thing” since he was about three years old.

By his fourth birthday, he had begun carrying around collections of CDs – for fun, for stress relief, for a feeling of security. The CDs were everything to him. He would listen to them endlessly, memorize the lyrics and the order of songs, line them up on the floor and generally obsess over them as he is known to do. The collection would change from time to time, but it grew pretty steadily in numbers until it became impractical for Ben to carry them around without disastrous results from dropping them, misplacing one, accidentally tearing the jewel-case insert or any number of other calamities.

Knowing this obsession was not likely to fade, we bought Ben his first iPod for his fourth birthday. It was a blue “Mini” (a model no longer made) and it was designed to hold around 1,000 songs. The Mini served us well. Ben no longer had to carry around the CDs themselves and it was huge relief for the whole family. A couple of years later, the Mini was well beyond its capacity with 1,170 songs, each one hand-selected by Ben, and it was time to upgrade. Ben put a new iPod on his Christmas wish list, but he was very concerned about Santa’s ability to transfer his songs and playlists.

I did my best to reassure him, but I must admit I was terrified when it came time to clone Ben’s Mini onto the 80gig Classic iPod Santa would be leaving under the tree. I checked the song count on the Mini before I began because I knew Ben would notice immediately if there were fewer songs. But when the cloning procedure was done, I had 1,217 songs on the new iPod - 47 more than were on the Mini. I wasn’t overly concerned because Ben is always happy to have new music. After some investigation, I found that a random sampling of songs had been pre-loaded on the new iPod. And those, along with some music from the computer I used to do the cloning, made up the 47 new songs. I was sure it would be fine.

Ben was thrilled to discover the new iPod under the tree that year and was absolutely beside himself that Santa had put all his music on it and his beloved playlists. As is usually the case on Christmas morning, there was a general air of holiday chaos that day - new toys with which to play, a mountain of trash from unwrapped gifts and Christmas dinner to be prepared. Ben took his new iPod and disappeared into the office for the rest of the day. I checked on him a few times and he said he was making a playlist – a perfectly normal thing for Ben to do. A few times throughout the day, he left the office and wandered about the house, head bent over his new iPod while he scrolled through the songs. Then he would disappear back into the office. Honestly, this was not particularly unusual behavior for Ben so I didn’t think much of it, except that he did it all day long, which did seem a bit odd (but only a bit).

Finally, around dinner time, Ben brought me a typed playlist entitled “Recently Added” and asked if I would create the playlist on his new iPod. At first glance, the songs seemed fairly random, so I asked him if they were anything special. He said “These are the extra songs Santa added to my iPod.” It was only then that I noticed the playlist was 47 songs long. Upon closer examination, I realized these were the 47 songs on the new iPod that had not been on the old iPod Mini. Ben had scrolled through all 1,217 song titles and identified each new song to compile the list.

I asked Ben if it was OK with him that Santa added those 47 songs. He replied “Sure, mom - Santa rocks.”

Indeed he does, Ben. As do you.