No, this isn't going to be about meltdowns, stimming, or any of the other stereotypical behaviors associated with autism.
This is about how people respond, or, rather, react, when a special needs person fails to stay in the background "where they belong."
You see, and what I am about to say will be considered heresy by many autism activists who want us to believe that autism is perfectly normal, there is a perfectly normal teenager trapped inside an autistic body.
He has the same hopes and dreams that most other teenagers have:
He wants to go to college.
He wants to move out on his own one day.
He would love to be on the US Olympic swimming team.
He wants to be a train engineer.
He wants a girlfriend.
Many people, however, don't see that. They see an autistic young man, and that means they have certain expectations of how he will act - the place they expect him to occupy in the pecking order.
They don't understand, and maybe they don't WANT to understand, that he is is trying to be normal. They don't know that he has gone from being essentially nonverbal, not caring whether he ever interacted with others, to desiring relationships with others. They don't know that his art has been displayed during a local art show. They don't know that he is the first autistic young person to swim on his high school swim team.
He takes many of his cues socially from the young people around him, but he doesn't understand that much of what he sees is determined by context. He sees friends, boyfriends and girlfriends, following each other around, waiting for each other when they leave the room, waiting outside the door when they go to class or the restroom. He sees them holding hands, or putting their arms around their boyfriend or girlfriend. He wants to initiate conversations with members of the opposite sex.
But instead of understanding, because he isn't conforming to their ideas regarding how he should act in a social setting, it throws them off, even scares some people.
Which is too bad.
They have no idea what they are missing out on, they don't realize the opportunity they have to build into his life - an opportunity to truly impact his life, to help him become as normal as possible. And what is TRULY sad is how the young people of the church, the people who are called to show the compassion of Jesus the Christ, are some of the worst offenders.
God help us.
Father, forgive them. The have no idea what they are doing.
