Post by Ettina on Feb 13, 2007 16:27:32 GMT -5
What is the need for routine like?
I'm autistic and I don't mind if my routine is changed or if something I was expecting but not really longing for doesn't happen, but I do have some subtle things and I was wondering if those are shades of the same thing:
a) I prefer to do things the same way and get a bit disoriented if I have to change it. For example in my class when someone else sat in my seat I kind of wandered around a bit, unsure what to do, before finally forcing myself to pick another seat. I work with a girl with Rett Syndrome who has this tendency but more extreme. She tends to run around saying 'go home' a lot (more than she usually does) when she doesn't know what to expect.
b) if something I was really looking forward to gets cancelled or delayed I get very upset. For example my parents were going to get me books at the bookstore once but decided to just go home because my mother was sick, and I had a meltdown. It wasn't just the change in plans, had it been swimming (which I enjoy, but not as much) we were going to do I would have accepted it fine.
c) I have trouble 'rewriting' stuff in my head. If I thought something and it turned out to be wrong, I have trouble getting rid of the old idea. I keep thinking the old thing then correcting myself. For example with the false belief test where the kid is shown a box of smarties and discovers it actually has pencils inside, I might later get hungry and think 'I have smarties' then remember they're pencils. Except it's not that extreme, because if I didn't think about it much (if there was a short period of time between seeing the box and finding out it contains pencils, or I didn't really care what was inside and so didn't think much about it) then I'm less likely to have that happen.
I'm autistic and I don't mind if my routine is changed or if something I was expecting but not really longing for doesn't happen, but I do have some subtle things and I was wondering if those are shades of the same thing:
a) I prefer to do things the same way and get a bit disoriented if I have to change it. For example in my class when someone else sat in my seat I kind of wandered around a bit, unsure what to do, before finally forcing myself to pick another seat. I work with a girl with Rett Syndrome who has this tendency but more extreme. She tends to run around saying 'go home' a lot (more than she usually does) when she doesn't know what to expect.
b) if something I was really looking forward to gets cancelled or delayed I get very upset. For example my parents were going to get me books at the bookstore once but decided to just go home because my mother was sick, and I had a meltdown. It wasn't just the change in plans, had it been swimming (which I enjoy, but not as much) we were going to do I would have accepted it fine.
c) I have trouble 'rewriting' stuff in my head. If I thought something and it turned out to be wrong, I have trouble getting rid of the old idea. I keep thinking the old thing then correcting myself. For example with the false belief test where the kid is shown a box of smarties and discovers it actually has pencils inside, I might later get hungry and think 'I have smarties' then remember they're pencils. Except it's not that extreme, because if I didn't think about it much (if there was a short period of time between seeing the box and finding out it contains pencils, or I didn't really care what was inside and so didn't think much about it) then I'm less likely to have that happen.