Waterfalls wrote:
It makes me sad reading about rigidity of thought for those with ASD--because I hear my daughter complain about the rigidity of typical people at school quite often. And I am periodically hurt by what seems to me the rigidity of thought of typical people.
It's hard to get past the frustration when things don't go as we want, or expect, and that's got nothing to do with being ASD of NT. What I think is that those we don't understand seem rigid and stubborn and the reactions excessive. And that when any of us, whatever our label, ASD or NT, find a way to see what makes sense about someone else's behavior or reaction, things go much better.
Finding a way to understand the experience of a child can shift rigid and negative to willing to try. Can help with regaining some control. Can allow for connection, can allow love to matter.
I think there are different types of rigidity. I cannot say my son is not rigid. He is. If he thinks something is a rule (even if it isn't) it is very hard for him to move past that. When he has a specific idea, it is hard for him to change it, although he will, if you have the facts and show them to him. I have my rigidities too, to be honest.
I do think some of the people who have dealt with him, though, have been more rigid: Rigid in their beliefs of how to deal with him, and inflexible when it did not work.
Edited for literacy.
Last edited by ASDMommyASDKid on 28 Apr 2014, 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
28 Apr 2014, 6:19 am
