Listening and Autism
One of the biggest issues there are with some with autism is listening. Or should it be focus? I’m not sure really which one it should be. You see, people with autism can be “laser focused” on whatever it is they are doing, which can be a marvellous thing.
However, it is much more difficult to get their attention. The times I have called Johnathan and am not certain if he has heard me or not. He doesn’t respond because he’s busy doing something and literally doesn’t hear me, or if he DOES hear, forgets to tell me he has.
When Johnathan was in nursery he didn’t understand that he was in the penguin group. So when they were having carpet time or whatever and needed to move onto the next task, the workers had to say Penguins and Johnathan come with me please. It wasn’t that he wasn’t willing to go - it was that he literally didn’t understand.
There is another issue with listening that I want to talk about here. They can also go through phases where no matter what you do or say, they literally don’t hear you. So you have to watch more closely and ensure that they are safe. Because when they are in this “state” they can do something crazy things - as Johnathan expresses it “but my head told me to do it.” So it’s important to be well aware of life during these seasons.
Then when someone on the spectrum is sliding down towards a meltdown, they literally don’t hear anything you say. We have to use other means of communication to get him to respond to us and this can take quite some time. When he was young, I would lay him on the floor,, lie down next to him , put my arm around him with some pressure and sing into his ear. Eventually it would work and he would go to sleep.
You see, when someone on the spectrum doesn’t appear to be listening, the fact is, most of the time, they literally cannot hear you . They are not ignoring you to be wicked, or do something wrong, they just can’t. But it’s not easy to remember that - and Johnathan is already ten years old and I still sometimes forget!