Autism Etiquette

[Jolie77]

wow! thanks for link. it is very rich in info on what to do with autistic people and how to meet them.

You're welcome.

I too thought it was very rich in information and it was too good not to be passed around.

 

[Jiro]

No problem. I wish you luck with the Autistic people you meet.

 

[Jiro]

Here is my daughters response.....


The first thing that you should know is that Autism is a spectrum disorder which means you will never find two people with Autism that are the same. There are some people with Autism that seem just like you or me. On the other hand, there are some people that may not look you in the eye, may have little to no language, may have extreme social deficits, and may have severe maladaptive behaviors. This is what most people think of when they hear the word "Autism"- kind of like The Rainman

I would advise you to treat these people like anyone else. Having said that, if you run into someone who seems to be socially awkward or you aren't sure how much they understand, perhaps you can give them a smile and a hello. If they don't respond, don't take it personally and don't let it discourage you. I'm sure there will be plenty of people there that you will be able to converse with and maybe even learn something from. The world through the eyes of someone will Autism can be extremely enlightening. So, don't hold back and try not to let a few quirks get in the way of having a good time with great people.

For more information on Autism, go to CARD Home.

I'll remember to smile and be encouraging - whatever the circumstance is.

 

[Jiro]

Always remember that those with Autism are just like us.

They are not hypersensitive. They deal with a lot of things much more than we do.

Autistic people in my opinion need to have their personal space and their personal space needs to be respected by others.

Communicate with them and understand their meltdowns. There are needs for those meltdowns. Sometimes we trigger those meltdowns.

One thing we need to understand is that we cannot use perfume, cologne, hairspray or anything scented around autistic people because they have very sensitive noses & prone to act out because of the scents.

I think I pass the sniff test. I don't wear cologne or whatsoever because I do have heightened... olfactory??? sense.

 

[Jiro]

On of the girls on my Daugher's softball team has an autistic brother.

He is a wonderful sweet boy! He does not communicate well verbally. When I met his mother. She told me he is autistic. And does not speak often or well. She said he does sign. I told her I sign. I have never seen a kid light up so much when I started signing to him. He does fairly well with sign language.

It was awesome.

I talked to him like I would talk to others. He talked mainly about his sister playing ball.

that's awesome. I was actually thinking of signing to autistic people along with talking as they are very visual-based but I wasn't so sure because when signing - you have to make facial expression and from what I read, they are acutely sensitive to glaring and "negative" facial expression.

I suppose I'll keep a happy face while signing and talking.

 

[lsfoster]

Actually some experts think that Asperger's is distinct from HFA.
Like an Aspie would be a stereotypical geek. It's related to autism, but it's not autism per se.
It's more like the learning disabilty version of autism. Whereas HFA is more like "mild MR" version. I'm not saying that Aspies are learning disabled or that HFA are mild MR........just saying that those are the functional equiliants of their disabilty.
I hate hate hate how every single "social delay" is automaticly labled as being "Aspie"............People with learning issues often have social issues that go along with their learning issues, that aren't really too Aspie.

Yeah, Asperger's is quickly becoming a handy "go-to" category for a lot of kids. I remember when my brother was diagnosed with it when he was little, we'd never heard of it, and neither had almost anyone we talked to. Now it seems to be a much broader and more common diagnosis.


Otherwise, Jiro, I think people have given wonderful advice. I really think if you just try to treat them the way you would anyone else, you'll be fine. People have said that every autistic person is different, but so are non-autistic people. When you meet someone, you try to get a feel for what makes them comfortable, just do the same. Some people, autistic or not, like eye-contact, others don't. Don't try to follow any hard "rules" about meeting them, just try to be respectful, polite, interested, and the rest shouldn't even be a problem. And good luck! I hope you have a great time!

 

[Jiro]

Here's Travel Report

I did not get to talk to any autistic people but I did see a couple of autistic kids. This was a fairly small sizable rally - with about 100 or less bikers.

 

[dogmom]

Jiro, for pic.'s! Was it mainly local people?

 

[Jiro]

Jiro, for pic.'s! Was it mainly local people?

yep.