A Missed Inference

My 19-year-old son with Asperger's never ceases to be a source of amusement.

The other day as I headed to work, I noticed that my husband had taken out the kitchen trash earlier that morning. Since our garbage can did not have a new plastic bag inside of it, some garbage had piled up on the kitchen counter. As I hurried out the door I asked Stephen if he would bring a new garbage bag up from the garage.

When I arrived home later that day, I saw the pile of trash on the counter had grown while I was away. At first I thought that Stephen had simply forgotten my request, but then I saw a new plastic garbage bag carefully laid across the garbage can.

I immediately burst out laughing. My son, who thinks in concrete terms, did exactly what I asked him to do.

Hoping to turn this in to a teaching moment, I went to my son's room and asked him if he remembered what I asked him to do earlier that day. He replied that I asked him to bring up a garbage bag. I then said, "Steve....when you brought the garbage bag upstairs and saw trash piled up on the counter, was there any inference you could have made?"

As he started to think about my question, a slow grin spread across his face and he said, "There is now...."