Aug 14 2008
Meltdowns in public as it pertains to any child, autistic or not. Please keep your comments to yourself.
One of the most challenging issues that parents deal with is meltdowns in public. Onlookers can be cruel and usually do not understand what they are witnessing. They often have their own ideas about what they are seeing and choose to comment on what they clearly do not understand.
These comments not only affect parents personally, but also have a drastic affect on the situation directly. As the parent becomes more stressed, so does the child. This escalating situation can get out of hand very quickly if cooler heads do not prevail.
There have been instances of shouting matches between a parent and onlookers, which have created such stress on a child that the initial behavior becomes completely out of control.
The types of comments that parents receive regard not only their autistic child’s behavior, but assault their ability to parent and are based on assumptions.
Perhaps onlookers could do parents of all children a favor and choose to look or walk away. If you have a child, you might very well understand that children do from time to time act out, even in public. If you are the parent of a child with autism, this can be the rule and not the exception.
Even if the child does not have autism, onlookers who make comments about situations that are clearly none of their business, are interfering in an important learning experience. It is a parent’s responsibility to handle their children. It is not the right of an onlooker to gawk and comment on any situation to which they have not direct knowledge or expertise.
Those of us on the spectrum, as well as loved ones and parents, would greatly appreciate your help. Just by walking away and ignoring an outburst you do everyone involved, including yourself, a huge favor.
I hope that as autism becomes more well known to people who don’t experience it first hand, that some of this will lessen.
I don’t have kids, but I know people who have children with autism and it wasn’t until I started to become more aware that I realized some of what we may see in public as badly behaved children is children with autism.
Of course all kids act out in public at some point, that is normal. It is just now becoming more understood that children with autism often do not handle aspects of public settings well.
Good post.
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/