Strange behaviour

[Guest guest]

Hello all,I wonder if anyone has any ideas on this, please? The other day, we visited our son, ny, at his superb school. He is 18, autistic and non-verbal (he lost all his language at around three). He is a lovely young man, full of mischief and charm. He is generally very happy and the school staff adore him. For the past few months, he has been manifesting one specific, puzzling behaviour which has left the school bewildered - and I must say, when I saw it at first hand recently, it confused me, as well!What happens is this: taking ny from his bedroom to his classroom (a walk of around 100 metres, I suppose), he runs past a particular block of buildings on the right-hand side to get into the class. However, the problems come on the return to his room. He simply refuses to walk past that same block of buildings, which is now on the left. Every time he goes past it, he shrinks back into an alleyway or goes back on his tracks. He often looks up at the sky at this point, as if something is upsetting him there. Precisely what is disturbing him is very unclear. There are no planes overhead. It was quite bright and sunny, and even hot, the other day when we witnessed this behaviour, and the school told us that he is much more willing to come past the block back to his room when the weather is rainy. There seems to be something 'atmospheric' (and sky- or weather-related) which is really upsetting ny. Of course, being non-verbal, he cannot explain what it is. There has been lots of speculation going on. Could ny be frightened of certain shapes of clouds (as I said, he does always look up at the sky before refusing to go back to his room)? Could the particular light or sky conditions remind him of the same conditions occurring when he had an unpleasant experience of some sort in the past, and this leads him to make a negative association between the two in his mind? Someone suggested that it might be that ny may realise that there is a fixed time for him to be in class, whereas returning to his room is somehow more flexible.Any suggestions would be much appreciated!Best wishes,Adam Feinstein

[Guest guest]

Does he have more visual sensitivities on one side than the other? Check his peripheral vision...I know that's out there, I just want to get conversation rolling on this...~ Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from LIME.From: Adam Feinstein <afpublications@...>Sender: autism Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:23:53 +0100< >Reply autism Subject: Strange behaviour Hello all,I wonder if anyone has any ideas on this, please? The other day, we visited our son, ny, at his superb school. He is 18, autistic and non-verbal (he lost all his language at around three). He is a lovely young man, full of mischief and charm. He is generally very happy and the school staff adore him. For the past few months, he has been manifesting one specific, puzzling behaviour which has left the school bewildered - and I must say, when I saw it at first hand recently, it confused me, as well!What happens is this: taking ny from his bedroom to his classroom (a walk of around 100 metres, I suppose), he runs past a particular block of buildings on the right-hand side to get into the class. However, the problems come on the return to his room. He simply refuses to walk past that same block of buildings, which is now on the left. Every time he goes past it, he shrinks back into an alleyway or goes back on his tracks. He often looks up at the sky at this point, as if something is upsetting him there. Precisely what is disturbing him is very unclear. There are no planes overhead. It was quite bright and sunny, and even hot, the other day when we witnessed this behaviour, and the school told us that he is much more willing to come past the block back to his room when the weather is rainy. There seems to be something 'atmospheric' (and sky- or weather-related) which is really upsetting ny. Of course, being non-verbal, he cannot explain what it is. There has been lots of speculation going on. Could ny be frightened of certain shapes of clouds (as I said, he does always look up at the sky before refusing to go back to his room)? Could the particular light or sky conditions remind him of the same conditions occurring when he had an unpleasant experience of some sort in the past, and this leads him to make a negative association between the two in his mind? Someone suggested that it might be that ny may realise that there is a fixed time for him to be in class, whereas returning to his room is somehow more flexible.Any suggestions would be much appreciated!Best wishes,Adam Feinstein