ASD Kids Lack Empathy..... Right!!!!

Empathy... putting oneself in the shoes of another and feeling what they feel.  It is by far one of the hardest things to teach.  Our kids are rote learners and transferring what they have learned to natural situations can often be, well, clunky.   We have all seen our kids struggle with understanding the emotions of others; how much more difficult is it to understand how those feelings make another person feel.  Happy, sad, angry... they all can be very different for two people.  A person may feel great happiness running barefoot on the beach with the sand squishing between their toes.  To a sensory kid, like most of our ASD kids, this experience may be one of the worst ones they can imagine.  Empathy requires an immense understanding of how to experience things without prejudice.

James is the Prince of anti-prejudice.  He feels that everyone should be treated the same way, as long as it benefits him.  He bestows wisdom and other trinkets on his subjects in hopes of gaining good stuff in return.  Recently, he bestowed germs that attacked 3/4ths of the population of the kingdom.  When he found that given germs that had made his beloved sister ill, he refused to do any work so that he could segregate himself from the "peasants" to protect them from further contamination. The queen, being the only member of the kingdom not to fall ill, handed him a mask and told him to get back to the task at hand (occupational therapy).  His plan foiled, he begrudgingly returned to the Interactive Metronome dragon and had the best session yet, getting many burst, which made him giddy with princely pride!! click here 
So empathy... James has it in spades!! His sister sick today and unable to go to school offered yet another opportunity to play the empathy card.  My husband dropped him off at school and not 40 minutes later we received a call, "Good morning,  we have James in the office.  He says he has a cold and wants to come home."  My husband responded, "Yeah, he has had it since the weekend and he is fine.  Send him back to class!"  Foiled again!! What good is empathy if you can't use it to your benefit?  I hope James continues to search for the answer to that question.  As for today, the answer is not one he necessarily wanted to hear.  I guess he still has some growing to do in understanding this difficult topic.

James is going to make Empathy work for him even if it hurts
the other person!  When this picture was taken, we all feared
for our health every time that little man gave us a hug!!