Additional Activities if you're looking for more...
Activities for Anything But Typical
1.
Read Rules by Cynthia Lord. “Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is
near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves
around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from
"a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in
public" ---in order to head off David's embarrassing behaviors. But
the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi,
the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior
that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?”
2.
Many young people use writing as
a way of sharing who they are: it helps them find a voice that they don’t have
in talking with people. Try writing something that reveals something about
yourself that you may find difficult to tell but that you can write about. The
expression that Jason experiences from writing frees him from some of his
limitations. What do you feel as you express yourself in your writing?
3.
Learn more about autism, or
autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and how it affects people:
4.
Write a response to one of the quotes from
Anything But Typical (or one you found
on your own):
“Why do people want everyone to act just like they do, look
like they do...and if you don’t, well, if you don’t, then people make the
assumption that you do not feel what they feel…and then they make the
assumption that you must not feel anything at all.”
“I am like a leaf on a river, riding along the top of the
water, not quite floating, not quite drowning.
So I can’t control the direction I am going. I can feel the water, but I never know which
way I am heading. But I might feel lucky
this day and avoid the sticks and branches pulling at me.”
“’People don’t mean everything they say,’ my mother has told
me. So why do they say it? Why would people say things they don’t really
mean? Nobody has given me a good answer.”
