Aspies For Freedom

One thing that always puzzles me with these "cure" type stories is whether the child would have just improved communication/tolerance for noise etc anyway, without any of the specialised intervention.

Umm I believe that having tantrums or spinning in circles is otherwise known as being a little kid. And what is so wrong with lining up toys? It is silly to try to dictate to a tot how she may position her toys when she plays with them, especially if her only crime is being orderly.  Oh no, children are permitted to do that only with toys that are "supposed" to be ordered, like jigsaw puzzles, nesting blocks or army men.  Just like it is only okay to rock if you do it in a rocking chair or on a rocking horse.  Doing it without special equipment is unacceptable!  

Sorry, I'm ranting.  Yesterday I watched film dad made of my sister and me on Xmas when I was 3 yrs old. I was surprised it showed me putting a doll in a baby carriage. I didn't think I ever had a doll. Mom always complained she couldn't get me interested in them. Yesterday sis explained that during that film, mom was instructing (and threatening) me to put the doll in the carriage. Mom got angry when I then put a sock monkey in there, saying "It's a BABY buggy not a monkey buggy!"  Dad told her to leave me alone. Dad was my hero

hehe I like that line.  I still find dolls a bit creepy.  Mom got angry when I put other kinds of toys (like trains) in the baby buggy. Eventually they gave me a tiny shopping cart so I could fill it with all manner of things. Loved the cart!  Apparently it made an important difference to mom which toys could be put in which kind of rolling cart. I guess she was rigid that one was supposed to "imagine" particular scenerios and only do things that fit that script. I just liked filling it and rolling it.  Why are kids required to imagine anything at all? What's wrong with just enjoying an object in the here and now?

Lining things up isn't just resticted to autistics either- my NT brother used to line his toy cars up on the windowsill bumper to bumper.

Agree completely with Tigger the Wing- I have imaginary characters and situations and when I think about them in my head I pace (often with my Ipod in, for some reason) and sometimes I get an energy surge and wind up jumping up and down. Needless to say, I am fourteen and to people who don't know me it would seem really, really strange.
I also have a friend who is similar. We both also somethimes tell fictional stories out loud to ourselves.

But I think it's wrong to discourage it- these sort of stims come hand in hand with a child's personal escapism, and the imaginations people keeping insisting aspie kids don't have. It could have helped Sarah a bit if she'd been allowed to continue- especially if she had had consistant worlds.  

And lining things up! Hating the Happy Birthday song! Oh, blasphemy! That will never do, we must stamp that out immediately or else her life will be ruined!
Honestly.

And as another previous poster said- wouldn't it have been much easier for all involved to just not sing her the birthday song?