Can’t start – can’t stop Another problem autistic individuals experience is ‘inertia’ (Dekker 1999) – difficulty in starting, stopping, planning and changing activities. Initiation difficulties are often physical: despite knowing what to do (and how to do it), they just cannot start doing it. One of the possible causes can be an inability to control their bodies or other movement impairments . We don’t even have proper control of our bodies. Both staying still and moving whe

Let’s start with linguistics: The way we label things around us means a great deal. Let’s look at the widely used terms in an ‘autistic way’, i.e., literally (without adding any personal connotation – neither positive, nor negative) – each word in this section has its dictionary meaning. - Autism Spectrum : Spectrum is defined as ‘the entire range of particular type of thing, arranged by degree or quality, etc.’; it is used to classify something in terms of positio

Helen, an 11-year-old girl with autism, goes to mainstream school and does very well at all the subjects. But no one at school has ever heard her speak. She used to sit quietly in the classroom rocking her body and seems oblivious to everybody around her. However, her written work is always neat and correct. Her mother says she talks to her family at home, always whispering, but only if there is nobody else present there. If the family’s friends come to visit, she turns into

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome or Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by sudden, brief, repetitive, involuntary (unwanted) movements or vocal sounds called tics. They can range from mild to severe. Severe symptoms might significantly interfere with communication, daily activities and quality of life. Tics can be classified as: Simple tics: they involve a limited number of muscles. Complex tics: they involve several muscle groups. Motor tics in TS

A splinter skill or a learning style? One morning (not the best time for me – getting ready for my work), my autistic son (who had started saying his first words at the age of seven – a few months before that day) suddenly said, ‘The weather was stormy and the family decided to stay at home.’ - Where did you hear that? What are you talking about? I turned around to see that my boy was not talking to me, he was reading ! His school textbook was open but not at the page with pi

Insisting on ‘Look at me when I’m talking to you’ vs. Talking to the wall Some autistic children need an intensive interaction style that make them aware of the presence of others and does not let them ‘slip’ into their own world – this is a directly-confrontational approach . For instance, for Temple Grandin, a more ‘intrusive’ style was beneficial as her sensory-perceptual problems were mild. For somebody with severe sensory distortions, a different approach is needed. They

‘Do you want eye contact or a conversation?’ This was the question asked by someone with Asperger syndrome when he was approached with “Hi, I’m so-and-so, I’d like to know your opinion on…” Perhaps, this ‘introductory question’ might sound strange to someone who doesn’t know much about autism, but if you are familiar with ASD, you’ll find it very logical and appropriate in this situation. Avoidance of eye contact is a common characteristic in autism and it is often seen as on

“[After the assessment] I was surprised to learn that most of [the infantile reflexes] were still present and uninhibited in me at the age of almost thirty in spite of having learned to compensate for and cover them up. One which was still present was an infantile reflex that babies have to assist them in passing out of the womb! It was also found that I had different infantile reflexes present in different quarters of my body and that some were partially inhibited and some n