I have the flu, and I've been up most of the night.  So forgive some of
my incoherent discussion.  I do so hope that my general ideas come across
well.
 
Last night Primetime did three stories about three special people.  One
was Temple Grandin.  The coolest autistic adult on the face of the earth.
Why is she so cool?  Because she is fully autistic still (not as mild or
emerged like Sean), she is not a savant, is not retarded, etc., ... she
is just purely autistic.  She went through college and has doctorates in
a few things.  She revolutionized the cattle industry and how cows are
treated and slaughtered.  She is the darling of animal rights people in
this regard.  If livestock, etc., need better treatment, etc., she is the
one to see.  She is a great author.  She has written several books about
autism.  A few about cattle.  One awesome one about genetics.  And now
about animals in regard to autistics/her.
 
Sean was interested to hear her latest theory that autistic people can
think like animals better than normal people.  He agrees with this.  He
says he feels different from other people all the time because of how he
relates to animals.  He says it's different then say some of use extra
sensitive "animal people" who love animals, adore them, and care for
them.  He says he can feel what they are thinking and see what they are
seeing, etc.  Remember my story about him being very agitated about
people being "rude" to ferrets one day??  To me, they did not mistreat
the animals at all.  But when I thought about how they might have come
across to the animals, like if they are considerate or .... I don't know,
it's hard to describe how they were... no they weren't.  But when he
said this and I scrunched up my face trying to figure out what he meant,
I figured out that he was putting himself in the pets place at the time.
He was saying that he could imagine that the animals felt the tones and
feelings that the humans were directing towards them even if it wasn't
overt and even if they could not understand our words.  And it made him
mad.  I had forgotten all about that episode.  As well as many others.
 
I always assumed that some of Sean's past behaviors like strongly
objecting to people staring at the ferrets, or at his frogs too long to
be related to something else.  You see while autistic children develop,
they have a great deal of trouble with differentiating self with
environment.  It's a surreal feeling to now know where your body ends
and where your coat starts for example.  I figured he was meshing with
the animals of sorts.  Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't.
 
So why don't we see more autistic people working with animals?  In fact,
some autistic children are downright dangerous around animals.  Is it
that some of them don't figure out the connection?  Is it that only the
individuals that emerge, or stratagize around the autism can reach out
with this talent or communicate about it?  It's interesting to note, that
in past studies ... autistic children tend to ignore an animals presence
just as they do a humans in general.  However ... they do notice animals
more than humans.  Neurotypical kids acknowledge humans before or more
strongly than animals.  NT children notice both humans and animals more
than autistics as a whole as you would suspect.  One study actually
watched how children reacted to several species as well as humans.  There
were obvious patterns.  I so wish I could remember them but I can't.  In
addition one study was done in England, as I remember, and ferrets were
in the mix of animals studied with autistic children.  They were
recognized more than cats, and two other species.  I wonder if it's
just something they covet for some reason.  Sean doesn't annoucnce this
phenomenon specifically.  When this was brought up, it was like a relief
for him to vent it and talk about it.  Maybe he just assumed that we
couldn't understand.  Or maybe it's just one of those things he couldn't
put his finger on until someone verbalized it.  I often wonder if this
is an obstacle many autistic people have (not being able to put their
finger on something to communciate it, or work it out in their mind).
 
Wolfy
http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com
[Posted in FML issue 4814]