Tune In To Bobby's Breakfast Show

It takes me a while to tune into Bobby FM in the morning. By the time I’m on his frequency, he is already asking whether I can upload The Way of the Exploding Stick onto his desktop. 

This is part of Bobby’s overall strategy to strike when I’m vulnerable to attack – either half-asleep, helping Alec to get dressed, or cooking something new.

At 7.30am I’m more concerned with getting Alec to hold onto his trousers as he eases his left leg into them. 

At the same time, Al finds about four other more interesting things to do. I am torn between summoning up saintly patience and grabbing kid and trousers and shoving one into the other.

“So you’ll put it on my desktop?” nags Bobby, fully aware, despite the autism, that it’s about now that I’m liable to agree to something stupid. 

Of course, I can’t say: “No, because that website is teaming with other completely inappropriate games and probably a virus or two.” I need to be diplomatic, because I really don’t need a tantrum blasting through the early morning like a runaway freight train.

“I have to have a look at websites first and see if I can find the game somewhere safer.”

You’d hope that would be the end of it. The thing with autistic kids, though, is that arguments are like gobstoppers. If you use the right technique, they can last a lifetime. 

Whilst Bobby continues to babble about the Skylanders that he needs to collect, my brain hovers over the Control + Alt + Delete setting.

But when we’re in the car, it occurs to me that there’s never going to be a better time to help him hone his conversation than when he’s talking about something he REALLY loves. 

So I do my best to crawl into his head and I ask him about magic powers, and special powers, and extra special powers, and extra extra special powers. 

He can chat about this stuff pretty articulately when he wants to. When you're on his specialist subject, you can get a very good two-way conversation. Course, it's on his terms, but you've got to start somewhere.

When I do wake up and tune in, it’s quite rewarding, as it happens. But as with anything - not to be done before I’ve had my morning coffee.