Published on 12, July, 2020
I am looking for advice/guidance and insight into something new that has developed with a 7 year old girl with autism. She is quite often 'in her own world', laughing, giggling, talking to self etc and not really engaged with her environment and what is being said to her. Getting her focus and attention back s quite challenging. Aftermovement breaks and other simialr activities, she may regain focus but then tends to go back to whatever is occupying her mind. When asking about it, she sometimes is able to share what she is laughing about not not always.
I would like to understand this better as an education practitioner.
Thank you
That was me! And it's my niece. A rich and wild imagination, which she's heavily focused into. And it sounds like she's in an environment which helps her thrive.
Parallel Play is good for these kids. But technically speaking, she doesn't have a problem with attention or focus, it's just not on things others would like her to focus on. :)
First, I'd suggest to have a look into Monotropism https://monotropism.org/ - this site may give you a lot of answers, especially on Autistic Inertia.
Grunya Sukhareva's pioneering work includes children with excellent imaginations https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10038965/
Also have a look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laban_movement_analysis
Also, I'm working on a theory which suggests Autistics by nature, can be stuck in a great wealth of 'right-brain' thinking. While this is controversial, the things found in this hemisphere seem very intuitive for Autistics, so much so that we might appear to need grounding when our brain normally sense-perceives infinite and momentary Time (Kairos and Aeon). But for children who have reliable and respectful parents, they might exhibit less trauma (or no trauma).
Last, if you look back into historical notes in Psychoanalysis which didn't often know what to do with Autistics (sometimes referred to as schizophrenia even when there wasn't a disabling factor around what is real), and combine this with modern neurology, it does seem, autistics will mature much slower than their peers, due to a difference in access to and use of language/linguistics. Freud, Lacan and Jung all noticed Autistics weren't creating Defence Mechanisms (though everyone can slip into Survival Mode if pushed enough) and these mechanisms are responsible for aiding maturity and intuiting civil-social behaviour.
Best to just do your thing and allow her to find interest. The imagination is an incredible space and should be nurtured as someday, it will be her best asset.
thank you so much-i will explore those suggestions