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The past few nights I have been watching the Shield maration on FX. I had heard rave reviews about the series but never watched it, and over the course of six ngihts they are running two episodes per night, the entire season leading up to the season finale on Tuesday. (Being a mid-season replacement, there are only 13 episodes in the first season)
So anyway, one of the plot threads has to do with the lead character's son. He first appeared in the second episode for about 30 seconds, a quiet five year old boy sitting at the kitchen table methodically lining up forks and staring intently at the pattern.
In the third episode he appears again briefly, giving his father a hug. Not the loving hug you might expect from an affectionate boy; not even a reluctant hug you might expect from a child under duress. It was more of a mechanical, "I'm supposed to make this motion now" kind of hug.
In the fourth episode the parents are meeting with his teacher, who is expressing concern about his development. The father insists that the boy is just very shy.. yeah, he's a little behind, but he's a good kid. The teacher thinks it is far more than that, and strongly suggests they take the boy to see a neurodevelpmental specialist.
Which leads to the fifth episode, in which the parents meet with the specialist after several sessions of examining the boy. The upshot of the scene is that he tells the parents that their son "has autism". Not "he is autistic", but " he has autism". It was just a very strange wording. In eight years of dealing with specialists, speech therapists, physical therapists, spending time with other families with autistic childeren, I have never once heard anyone say that someone has autism, as if autism was a disease to catch. Autism is a spectrum of behaviors, not a thing in and of itself. You wouldn't say a person has autism any more than you would say a person has shyness. Very odd.
Bad writer, no treats for you.
So anyway, one of the plot threads has to do with the lead character's son. He first appeared in the second episode for about 30 seconds, a quiet five year old boy sitting at the kitchen table methodically lining up forks and staring intently at the pattern.
In the third episode he appears again briefly, giving his father a hug. Not the loving hug you might expect from an affectionate boy; not even a reluctant hug you might expect from a child under duress. It was more of a mechanical, "I'm supposed to make this motion now" kind of hug.
In the fourth episode the parents are meeting with his teacher, who is expressing concern about his development. The father insists that the boy is just very shy.. yeah, he's a little behind, but he's a good kid. The teacher thinks it is far more than that, and strongly suggests they take the boy to see a neurodevelpmental specialist.
Which leads to the fifth episode, in which the parents meet with the specialist after several sessions of examining the boy. The upshot of the scene is that he tells the parents that their son "has autism". Not "he is autistic", but " he has autism". It was just a very strange wording. In eight years of dealing with specialists, speech therapists, physical therapists, spending time with other families with autistic childeren, I have never once heard anyone say that someone has autism, as if autism was a disease to catch. Autism is a spectrum of behaviors, not a thing in and of itself. You wouldn't say a person has autism any more than you would say a person has shyness. Very odd.
Bad writer, no treats for you.