Can Dannie make the right decisions with your help?
‘Dannie’s Dilemmas’ is a series of books designed to show the difficulties that children with Aspergers Syndrome face on a daily basis. These books are an interactive way for readers to get involved with ‘Dannie’s Dilemmas.’ The reader has the ability to choose the way the stories end. This makes them unique in their own way.
Dannie is an eleven year old Aspergers child, she is smart, friendly and very helpful, but due to the Aspergers she finds it difficult to assess situations, work out what people think and really mean, make daily choices and understand emotions and sayings.
Like most Aspergers children Dannie does find herself in trouble quite a few times for taking people literally, especially with idioms. ‘Dannie’s Dilemmas’ tries to explain as many idioms as possible.
Seeing life through Dannie’s eyes shows us all how emotionally difficult it is for Aspergers children to understand the world that we take for granted every day.
In ‘The Shopping Trip’ Dannie has some pocket money to spend and Dannie’s mother has promised to take her shopping for a new toy.
Dannie has problems organising herself to get ready to go out and constantly gets distracted and sidetracked.
Dannie’s mother explains to her that they have to go to a few shops before her shop. During this time Dannie gets impatient and bored, all she wants to do is go to her shop.
While in a sweet shop Dannie finds it difficult to understand the shop assistant and takes what the assistant says literally and finds herself in trouble.
Dannie eventually makes it to the toy shop, she is overwhelmed by the amount of toys to choose from and thus Dannie’s Dilemma begins, should she ask for her mothers help or should she choose for herself? The reader will choose her decision.
In ‘The Right Shoes,’ Dannie has to go shopping for some new shoes for school. Dannie hates shoe shopping as she finds it very stressful, therefore is not looking forward to this shopping trip.
Although Dannie has many pairs of new trainers, she insists on wearing an old pair of pink trainers that are falling apart. Dannie’s mother refuses to leave the house until Dannie has changed her trainers. Dannie has to choose one of her new pairs of trainers to wear which she does methodically and reluctantly. Dannie feels very uncomfortable in her new trainers but perseveres with them. Outside the shoe shop Dannie’s mother tells her that she must behave and listen to what the shop assistant tells her to do. Dannie does not approve as she believes the only person who knows Dannie’s feet and what’s best to wear is herself.
While Dannie is waiting for the assistant, Dannie’s mother takes the assistant to one side and explains that Dannie has Aspergers. She explains that Dannie may take a little longer than other children to choose the right shoes and asks the assistant to show her a little more patience.
While Dannie’s mother is looking around the shop for some shoes for Dannie to try on, the assistant doesn’t show any patience towards Dannie but instead speaks down to Dannie and treats her like an infant.
Dannie takes offence to the way she is being treated and retaliates against the assistant. Dannie cannot understand why she is being treated this way and gets angry.
The assistant and Dannie argue back and forth until the assistant puts her foot down and calls Dannie’s mother over to fix the problem.
This is when Dannie’s Dilemma begins, Dannie has to decide whether to tell her mother how she is being treated or to keep quiet and say nothing. The reader will decide the outcome.
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