When asked, “How are you?” some children, after a long hesitation, can only say, “I don’t know.” Others sense from a stomachache that something is wrong, but can’t say whether it’s fear, anger, or sadness. There’s a specific term for this, which literally means “no...
When you ask children about their favorite part of the school day, “recess” is a surprisingly common answer. Finally getting outside, finally being able to be loud, finally not having to sit still. For many children on the autism spectrum, this very part of the school...
A child tidies up their room without anyone having to tell them. They rarely speak up, don’t cause any trouble at school, and hardly ever talk about what’s on their mind at home. In families with an autistic child, it’s often the siblings who behave this way. And...
First, there are stomachaches in the morning; then, increasingly long discussions at the front door; eventually, the child stays home altogether. What begins as a single difficult day at school becomes, for some children, a pattern that is difficult to break. The...
For most families, summer vacation is the best time of the year. Finally, time without an alarm clock or a schedule. For many children with autism, however, this means the very thing that gave them stability in their daily lives disappears. When the reliable structure...
Some children put on a new sweater just once and then never want to see it again. Others cut the tag out of every piece of clothing as soon as they get it, or refuse to wear certain fabrics at all. For many children with autism, this is due to skin that perceives...
A child who spends hours absorbed in a single topic and, the next moment, can’t sit still for even two minutes. A child who insists on order but at the same time can’t keep the chaos in their backpack under control. Such contradictory behaviors unsettle parents,...
Many parents and school staff are familiar with this situation: The child doesn’t drink anything all morning, doesn’t go to the bathroom until it’s almost too late, and barely notices any of it. This is often interpreted as absent-mindedness or defiance, which isn’t...
Most people are familiar with the loud meltdown: a child screams, cries, thrashes about, and is almost impossible to reach. What goes unnoticed much more often is the quiet version. Some autistic children fall silent when overwhelmed, withdraw completely, and barely...
Train schedules from the 1980s, the exact number of species in a particular beetle family, or every station on the London Underground—people with autism can amass a level of knowledge in areas that others consider trivial or useless that puts experts to shame. There’s...
Today is Autistic Pride Day—a day championed by autistic people themselves that celebrates pride rather than disability. That’s exactly why we want to talk today about a question that’s almost never asked in everyday life. After all, recognizing strengths in autism...
More than 80 percent. That’s the percentage of children with autism who have sleep problems—and these are still conservative estimates based on studies. Families report that it takes their children over an hour to fall asleep, that they wake up at three in the...
