Threatened with the police and shouted at

Thanks, its just so nice to sound off, i have been at work so not been able to get on, and glad you have done that, perhaps they may reply,the satff diddnt do nothing apart from apologise to the other shoppers.

How awful for you. The public can be absolute cretins when it comes to these things.

I picked up there that two ladies were very kind and helpful,and I hope they were some comfort to you in a stressful situation.

It is a pity that the Police didn't come, because then you would have had grounds to complain to them about the discriminatory comments from those ignorant people, and they could at least have 'had a word'. I expect that the chap there thought you were abusing the child - people love to jump to their ignorant conclusions.

The trouble, as Longman points out, is that the Police are public too, no more likely to understand ASD than anyone else, and no more likely to try to, especially when public information is so poor. I've stopped, left what I'm doing and got out of there many times because it's all got too much for me. This applies to any and all situations where I'm out in public, from the Doctor's surgery to the supermarket. Sensory overload, I've never been able to explain it to a non-ASD person.

Longman is right - you cannot teach anything to people who will not learn. People who want to learn, on the other hand, will always at least try to 'get it' and first, will try to do no harm. We have a way to go to get the wider public at least aware of the issue, so I've started - I've just e-mailed Sainsbury's to ask them what their awareness is of this as a Disability access issue. Could be interesting!

The problem with such issues as meltdown due to sensory overload in public places is that, though frequently reported in children (and distress experienced by adults on the spectrum in such environments) it isn't mentioned in books. The lack of documentation influences public perception.

I cited particularly "Loving Mr Spock" by Barbara Jacobs, because on Penguin it is widely available. She gives 60 indications of asperger's syndrome od which only two are related: "there can be 'meltdowns' - tantrums caused by frustration" and "a tendancy to feel overloaded by social, emotional and sensory experience".

I cited two authors - Tony Attwood's Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, and Simon Baron-Cohen's Autism and Asperger Syndrome, which only have vague mentions.

Because meltdowns are not widely reported as a symptom of autism it remains inadequately understood in the public mind

Sounds like you had a very bad time of it. I think that the information on autism in the public domain describes something else, and people are generally unaware of issues like sensory overload and meltdowns.

The public hear bits of the triad - the three aspects the AQ test tests for - and is accepted by many as the familiar face of autism.

Sensory issues aren't in the public domain. Nor is the difficulty many have coping with the flood of sensory inputs and the distress it causes. And meltdowns - well to the public that must just be bad behaviour - attention seeking, making a scene. And it will stay that way until professionals and others supposed to be helping (including NAS) provide better expolanation of life with autism - as distinct from mere diagnostics.

This happens despite public incidents - we are only a couple of years down the road from the Metropolitan Police mishandling an incident at a swimming baths. You'd think the bad publicity they got at the time, that story would stick in the public mind.

Barbara Jacobs published a book "Loving Mr Spock - Asperger's Syndrome and How to make your relationship work" in 2003, and because it subsequently came out on Penguin Books, it is one of the most publicly visible books on the subject. She lists "sixty indications of asperger's syndrome" - there is just ONE that refers to meltdowns "20 There can be 'meltdowns' - tantrums caused by frustration". The only reference to sensory issues is "58 A tendancy to feel overloaded by social, emotional or sensory experience" but none of the 60 explain sensory issues.

So with that low level of understanding in the public domain, what chance has anyone on the spectrum got?

Then at the other end of things there is Simon Baron-Cohen (who carries out autism research using subjects who have received a private diagnosis at Cambridge in spite of the difficulties private diagnoses present compared to NHS diagnoses)  whose "Autism and Asperger Syndrome" published in 2008 solely mentions "sensory hypersensitivity" p 56 in respect of "noting details others do not".

Even Tony Attwood's "The complete guide to Asperger's Syndrome" has one paragraph p272-3 on sensory overload that is mostly about avoidance, and hardly anything on the distress caused, and nothing on meltdowns.

It just seems like sensory issues, sensory overload and meltdowns have nothing to do with autism. They just aren't discussed as part of the condition.

Yet many children have acute distress episodes in shopping malls and supermarkets, and many adults experience great difficulty in such environments (me included).

The problem is the appalling lever of ignorance amongst professionals about "living with autism" - the money goes on theories, cures and diagnostics. They don't care how hard it is to live with it.

And then no-one reads these postings except ourselves. NAS would have us used as a quarry for research, but do professionals read the evidence of those living with it. I doubt it