autism and attachment

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I thought you guys might be interested in this paper, talking about attachment styles in autistic kids. Their basic point is that autistic kids can form attachments as readily as NT kids do, but they express them differently. I especially like the example they give, of an autistic child they rated as securely attached:

Ettina, interesting, and I would agree. The very existence of these threads and their participants suggests we not only can form attachments, but want to, and well outside of childhood, which seems to be the focus of almost all current research.

I also agree that our attachments are different. I recently broke up with my girlfriend of twelve years because she never was able to resign herself to the ways aspies do show affection. She kept on advising me to try different things to be more acceptable to her, which I duly did, but in the end to no avail.

I think what we must do is work to improve our social skills as much as possible while simultaneously seeking out those who can and will accept us for who and what we are. We are who we are.

I think it is very interesting that there was a correlation between parents insightfulness about their child's behaviors and secure attachments. It provides support to my own parenting view of understanding my child and working within his abilities. I also appreciated the adjustment of securely attached infants to include behaviors that would be different in children with autism but still demonstrating the underlying idea/theory. Very informative article. Thank you for sharing that.

What a great story!

I think this proves what we already know--everyone loves. Some of us just love differently.

When I was three, I often ignored my mother when she was around, but I had a separation anxiety crying meltdown eberry morning when she picked up her purse to go to work.

How affirming. We parents rock!