It is Halloween night.
Door bell rings.
A little girl standing there, dressed in a store bought costume, not saying a word but gave you the dead stare.
You try to complement her about her costume; she is still not saying a word.
No big deal, she may be just a little shy.
You present her with a large bucket of full size candy bars filled with sugar and chocolate.
She takes one.
You tell her that she can have as many as she wants.
She does not say a word but started to chew on the candy bar with wrappers still intact.
She is chewing and chewing.
You are concerned about her health and safety, so you tell her that the wrapper is not edible and she should remove the wrapper off first.
She stopped chewing.
Instead of peel the wrapper off with both hands, she starts to shake the candy bar violently, and hoping the centripetal force from each shake would slowly push the candy bar out of its wrapper.
You are somewhat disturbed by the child’s odd behavior, but luckily her mother shows up (she was talking on the cellphone in the driveway).
You ask her what is wrong with the little girl.
She replies: “Um, yeah, she is autistic…”
Soon after they left and the front door is fully closed, would you laugh?
* thank, Matt
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wow. all i had just had stoned teenagers without costumes asking for candy.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think I would since it was pretty obvious she had major problems. It's quite sad all in all, poor kid. My daughter was adopted from China and as a result of her first year being in an institution, she is speech delayed. Combine that with the fact that she is pretty tall for her age (in the 95th percentile for her height), she looks almost like a 5 yr old when she just turned 3. Sadly, because she still can't speak any better than a 2 year old, people sometimes look at her strange. Sad thing is, her speech is delayed, but not her intelligence. She fully understands everything people say to her and sometimes their reaction to her can make her sad. Always assume the best of people before making judgments.
ReplyDeleteWhy was she alone most of that time if she was autistic? The mother should have been with up there with her.
ReplyDeleteHer mother was standing in the driveway talking on the cellphone.
ReplyDeleteI would think her mother would accompany her at least to the door.
NO...........I'm guessing you don't have children. As a parent, it kills me whenever I see any child forced to face issues normal children are blessed to avoid. Not funny....ever...in any situation.
ReplyDeleteThen why take your child out on Halloween evening, left her stand in front of some stranger's house by herself, while you talk on the cellphone?
ReplyDeletei was probably one of those stoned teenagers ^_^
ReplyDeleteBubba, I have a different opinion than Anonymous from 1:55 PM. Although someone having a mental deficiency is not "funny", the actions that those people display often can be. In my experience, parents who have the best relationship with mentally challanged kids are those that have fun with them and laugh when they do things that are funny. Trying to instill social rules that dictates that all strange actions by mentally challenged people is not funny creates boundries which will prevent those people from fitting into society. So, I say if something is funny have a good laugh, just be sensitive enough to know when it is inappriate in public (that is where the wife comes in...)
ReplyDeleteI'm anon from 1:55p and I'm hearing you anon from 6:00p. good point and I agree.
ReplyDeleteI think I interpreted 'would you laugh?' as 'would you laugh at them?' which would be horrible, but laughing with them is very different; however, if they are not intentionally trying to be funny, I believe that 'laughing with them' would actually be impossible.
If the kid is goofing around, then yes. I interpreted it as though they weren't.
Your entry is very touching. You know, my brother is PDD-NOS, which means that he's almost autistic.
ReplyDeleteAutistic child are always encouraged to do normal things with normal kids. I have no doubt that the mother let the kid to do thusly because she wanted the kid to do "normal things". And it’s also encouraged not to tell people that such kid is autistic until he or she causes trouble. That should help the kid to develop social skills.
Should the Mom talk on the cellphone? It's like asking me if a driver should talk on the cellphone while he's driving. Of course it's not a preferable thing to do. But almost everyone does these days!
would pitifully laugh at the mothers lack of understanding. she should have been with her daughter at the door (cell or not).
ReplyDeleteAutistic or not I wasn't phased by what happened, sure it's odd, but I'd just take it all in stride.
ReplyDelete