Her book "Damaged" had the most different child you could ever meet and this child didn't have autism. She had PTSD, learning delays, challenging behaviour and multiple personas.
Little Danny, the autistic child, was organised, self-sufficient, happy, and even very predictable. But because the word "autism" comes into the equation, oh he's suddenly described as challenging, different, unengaging, etc. She mentioned that it was unusual for a child to be so quiet or not interested in the toys she'd set up for them - when in actual fact quite a lot of children in her books came as shy and uninterested in the toys, even if they didn't have PTSD.
I think I'd rather foster an autistic child with a healthy mind than an angry, challenging, disturbed child who was just on a different planet entirely. This child (Jodi) was very difficult to engage with. Cathy even admitted herself that Jodi wasn't appealing in any way, not as a criticism, but as a sad truth. This child was overweight, had very little personality (even though she had several, if that makes sense), had no understanding of others around her, had language and speech delays, and was functioning at the level of a 3-year-old even though she was 8. All she did to her toys was break them and throw them around. But, from another perspective, I felt so badly sorry for her, because her behaviour was due to severe abuse she'd suffered from her own parents. And this abuse was so disturbing that it just made me cry. So the poor little girl turned out so disturbed, that she had blocked everything and everyone out and couldn't form bonds. Compared to her, the little autistic boy was an ordinary functioning little 6-year-old, except wise beyond his years.