Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Autism Sensitivities

I’m fascinated at the theory that people with autism may have been such a mainstay of civilization years ago. During a time when people had to always be on the lookout for predators or the enemy people with autism would have essentially been the look outs. Going along with this theory, people on the autism spectrum would have been sensitive enough to their surroundings and other people that they would have seen and felt things the rest of the world missed. This was a valuable skill. Now there are so many inputs into a person that it becomes never ending noise to a person with autism. Constant input is even painful. It wouldn’t matter if the input is audible, visual, something that could be felt, or a combination of any of these. It could cause pain. This so accurately describes my daughters. One of my daughters will start to cry or get angry for no reason. Typically we will be in a group of people where someone will start crying or get angry at the exact same time she does. It’s almost eerie and has happened more times than I can count. Taking this a step further, we are cluttering up the world with so many sights and sounds. This clutter is to the detriment of people who are so sensitive. To carry that a little further those people then act out with what we consider inappropriate behavior. That, at least for me, is a shocking thought.

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