Anything But Typical Discussion Questions and Activites

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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:

http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit/ten-things-every-child-autism-wishes-you-knew

http://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/autism/

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.”