San Antonio 12-Year-Old With Autism to Compete in National Scrabble Tournament

A 12-year-old with autism will represent San Antonio, Texas in a national Scrabble tournament in Washington, D.C. Ricky Rodriguez has been competing nationally since he was 8 years old, but it will be his first time at the North American School Scrabble Championship.

Speaking with KENS 5, mom Erin Rodriguez said that Ricky is used to competing nationally since he was 8 years old. However, he has mostly played against adults or older children than kids his own age.

Ricky clinched his first national Scrabble win as the third placer in a Philadelphia tournament when he was just 9 years old. He has also competed in Malaysia in 2019 for the world championships. This competition had over 190 participants from all over the world and Ricky managed to score the highest in seven out of the 19 games.

Ricky Rodriguez's Autism Diagnosis

The 12-year-old with autism was diagnosed when he was about 18-months-old. As he developed and got older, his parents noticed that Scrabble helped temper his tantrums down.

The boy has also gotten quite good with words because he liked flipping through dictionaries as a 3-year-old kid. His love for words reached a point where his parents had to tape the backbone of the dictionaries because Ricky has worn them out, according to Darik.

Ricky also liked watching his older brother, Tony, who is now 20 years old, practice for the spelling bee. At family competitions, he impressed everyone with his vocabulary skills when he started playing boggle in pre-school.

In kindergarten, a family friend gifted Ricky with a Scrabble Junior and from there, he was hooked on the game. Erin said that they searched for a local Scrabble group so Ricky could learn to be competitive and improve his social skills.

They discovered the San Antonio Scrabble Club, where many of the older players commend that Ricky's word knowledge is advanced for his age. Some even described the young man as a "prodigious talent" who can easily intimidate his opponents with his impressive skills. From this club, Ricky also learned how to devise strategies that have helped him in the competitions.

"It gave him an area to be successful and flourish," Erin said.

Playing Word Games in Five Languages

Erin observes that while other Scrabble players may get super competitive, her son remains cool regardless if he wins or loses. In an interview with KSAT, Erin said that she and her husband, Guillermo, have always reminded him to have fun and enjoy the fact that he can also travel during competitions.

Back at home in San Antonio, Ricky is also learning how to play other word games in five languages. His primary playmate is his grandmother, Isabella Mallants, 75.

His other playmate, 86-year-old Pat Griffith, died in 2020, and the family said that Ricky took this loss really hard. To process his grief, the 12-year-old with autism wrote a letter to reflect on Pat's death and said that she will remain alive in his heart.