"Riding the Bus with My Sister" Analysis
1. Four intellectual disabilities exhibited by Beth in the book Riding the Bus With My Sister, by Rachel Simon, are attention, abstract thinking, language and social communication. According to the informational power-points provided on Intellectual Disability, attention is defined as: short attention span, stimulus over-selectivity, orienting to a task, selective attention and sustaining attention to a task. Social communication is defined as: inferring motives and easily being manipulated. Abstract thinking is defined as: predicting future, tracking likely outcomes of actions, long-range planning and goal setting, and monitoring of progress. Language is defined as: reading and understanding environmental print and common tasks. Throughout the book, Beth has revealed her selective attention span towards the bus system. She knows nearly all of the bus runs and drivers. She knows which drivers are nice and which ones to avoid. She even knows all of the places around the city that will let her use their restrooms during the day. However, Beth’s impairment with attention causes her to struggle talking about anything other than the busses and their operators. When anyone tries to talk about another topic, Beth ignores them or talks over them. This dilemma leads to her social communication obstacle. Having trouble to have normal conversations not concerned with the bus transportation system causes many people to avoid her. Beth also tends to overwhelm the new people that enter her life. She will meet a new person and immediately become very fond of them. These people are flattered at first but quickly become annoyed and want her out of their life. This sometimes results in the people acting harshly towards Beth. Beth’s difficulty in abstract thinking takes root in her daily hygienic routine. She doesn’t regularly brush her teeth, which obviously leads to unhealthy oral hygiene. However, she does not concern herself with the consequences. Beth also wears disturbing