Autism, Aspergers and Bullies

Do you know about Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism? Well, I do and I’m learning more every day.

The kids with these two disabilities are having a rough time with bullies ‘cuz they are so trusting. The bullies take advantage of this to make the kids the subject of mean jokes and we all know how mean that is to do.

My mom told me that she encountered a young man outside of a grocery store last night. He was washing the big sliding door windows as she approached. She wasn’t sure if she should use a different entrance.

She asked the young man if she could enter through the doors he was washing. He said, “Yes.” She thanked him and got her basket. A minute later, she heard a voice behind her say softly, “You asked if you could go through those doors?”

If we hadn’t been learning more about the characteristics of Autistic and Asperger’s kids, she would have thought he was just being “smart-alecky” but he wasn’t.

When she turned to face him, she saw that he made no eye contact with her and still had the window cleaning equipment with him and he was making motions like he was still washing the window.

She realized that he had taken her question literally. She told him that she usually entered through the other door. She said she thought the door he was washing was locked shut since it didn’t open when he was washing it. Then she told him that he did a great job washing the windows.

He said, “Oh” without looking up and walked away. When my mom told me the story, we decided that we want to help these kids by helping by doing our best to stop bullying,

If my mom had been a bully, she could have really hurt this young man because he was so trusting. Let’s all help by stopping any bullying when we see bullying! You will help, right?

Photo by trixOr