Real-life Lesson

We had breakfast at a fastfood restaurant today - at Enysh's request. Ewah budak kecik ni, baru 4 tahun dah pandai pilih tempat makan!

Anyway, as we were getting our food, Angah & Kojiq went to get the chili/tomato sauce at the sauce counter. Yeah, it's one of those restaurants with the pump sauce dispenser. Kojiq was making a fuss about pressing the pump, and then ran off to our table on the other side of the restaurant, with Angah following suit.

Just as they passed by one of the restaurant staff, he said to Angah "Can I give your child a spanking?"

That stopped Angah in her tracks. The insolence! Angah responded with "Mind your own business and never interfere with my family!" They exchanged a few more words, during which Angah realized his speech sounded a little peculiar, slurry. So she just shrugged it off and we sat down for our meal.

The restaurant Manager happened to pass by our table, so we mentioned what her staff had said to Angah. We weren't upset or complaining, but rather Angah said "I hope he doesn't go around saying that to more customers." Guess what she told us then? "Oh, please don't mind him, he is autistic."

Well.

Our guess was, he was used to hearing people say that about & to him. That's why he repeated it to us. A person with autism doesn't really have the "mean" streak, but rather is incapable of identifying whether his conduct is socially acceptable or not. But he will remember what people do to him, and will repeat it to other people. He doesn't know that by suggesting to give Kojiq a spanking, he has offended us. But he probably associated Kojiq's making a fuss with his own experience when he used to make a fuss in the past.

The lesson? Do not treat an autistic child with violence (verbal included), because he may grow up to accept that violence is normal, and so he in turn will unwittingly act violent to other people.