This very thought-provoking video was put on You Tube by CS. He has several videos on Vimeo, check them out! I initially saw this on Andrea's blog, "Autism Unplugged."
Are you comfortable with your autistic child rocking, flapping, and displaying other "autistic" behaviors? I have always tried to let Samuel do these things (and I'm talking about rocking and flapping as well as scripting) as much as possible, but I will admit that as he gets older I am trying to develop the awareness in him that these behaviors are different and that it might be a good idea to do them in private if he can. I do this not because I want him to appear "normal" but because his stimming behaviors seem to get in the way of other things he needs to do. I'd gladly let Samuel rock his way through his school work, like Bill Gates was rocking in his meetings in this video. Right now, however, Samuel repeatedly tunes in and out of his work and his involvement with us as he scripts. I'm moving very slowly in talking to Samuel about this. As far as I'm concerned, I have his whole entire childhood (and maybe longer, if necessary) to educate him and help him learn to cope with life!
I appreciate the opinions that autistic people are making public about the importance of behaviors that convention has held as being "non-functional." That seems to not be the case. They ARE purposeful and functional and we parents should be careful when we try to limit them. We have so much to learn about autism. My gosh, we're still just coming out of the days when autistic people were thought merely to be mentally deficient. We're just beginning to understand that they have a different way of experiencing their surroundings and that they have a different way of learning. Let's be patient and try to understand them better before we go trying to change them in ways that are harmful!
