Perhaps the parents of autistic children feel this way generally regarding their kids?

“Exile” would be a valid concept only if someone wanted to be somewhere they were denied access to. But who is to say that autistic children want all the inconsistency, the silly rules, the complex dances? Or, from the preceding point, the guided tours?

The cajoling - “But don’t you want to do what all the other children are doing?” - may result in feelings of distress, but the mainstream “assumptions and expectations” can interpret the distress as, “I wish I could be there!” when it may well instead be, “I wish someone understood me!”

“Time out”, be it separation from the classroom or solitary confinement, may not be dreadful for every person in every case. How dreadful was it for the Buddha to sit alone beneath a tree seeking enlightenment? Or, for “Babylon 5” fans, how dreadful was it for G’Kar to sit in a prison cell for months writing his Book?

So the germane question has to be: dreadful for whom?

Last revised: June 23, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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