Johnnie puts his right hand on top of his head and starts waving it. You are puzzled. You ask concernedly, "What does that mean , Johnnie?"

Seeing that you do not understand, Johnnie starts getting anxious and flaps his hand even more vigorously to make you understand. Fortunately, Joan knows exactly what to do.

"Johnnie, Johnnie," Joan attracts Johnnie's attention, and offers helpfully, "Johnnie wants chicken video?"

Johnnie calms down, and looks at his sister hopefully. You are relieved. Yes, he does want to watch the chicken video.

Joan should not agree immediately; Johnnie has some mathematics homework to do for school.
Joan should get the video for her brother immediately, lest he gets into a real frenzy. This is more important than finishing his mathematics homework.

Joan tells Johnnie firmly, "Johnnie, half an hour of maths, then the chicken video."

Johnnie bursts into tears and starts wailing uncontrollably.
Joan needs to let Johnnie watch the chicken video now.
Joan should just ignore Johnnie's tantrums, and wait for him to cool down.

Joan tells her brother in a calm voice, "Johnnie, sit down on the chair. Come back when you are calm."

Joan turns on the radio; the station is playing some Mozart music. It appears to be rather soothing for Johnnie.

About ten minutes later, Johnnie has finally calmed down. He agrees to do half an hour of simple mathematics sums, followed by the chicken video. Click here to continue

Joan then goes to the kitchen to pour a glass of water for you. You go up to the radio to tune in to your favourite jazz station - both Timmy and yourself like listening to jazz music.

Suddenly, you hear some loud banging. You turn around...

You turn around and see Johnnie covering his ears and hitting his head on the table.

You rush to the kitchen and tell Joan, "Your brother's injuring himself!" Joan rushes back into the room. She guesses that the music is causing irritation to Johnnie. Joan should
turn off the jazz music
ignore Johnnie's behaviour, but at least stop him from hurting himself, perhaps by throwing a cushion underneath his head

After the jazz music is turned off, Johnnie is much better. The rest of the half an hour passes without event. You, Joan and Timmy manage to complete quite a bit of your science project.

As promised, Johnnie now gets to watch his favourite chicken video. Timmy now has a question for Joan

"Joan, while walking along the corridor, I noticed that someone has lined up three toy cars in every doorway. Furthermore, the cars are always in the same sequence: red, green, blue."
"Is this Johnnie's habit?"
Joan replies, "Yes, and we encourage Johnnie to do so."
Joan replies, "Yes, but we discourage Johnnie from doing so."

The video has ended and it is now dinner time. Johnnie seems rather anxious.

He asks repeatedly, "Where is the Timmy?" "Where is the Timmy?" Joan understands that Johnnie is anxious because you and Timmy are joining them for dinner.

When things get unfamiliar, Johnnie finds it stressful and may respond by asking questions repeatedly. These questions are not necessarily always direct, i.e. they can be unrelated to the cause of anxiety. Joan takes out a chart...

The chart is of their family dining room, showing where each person will be seated during dinner. This helps Johnnie to visualise the new environment.

Johnnie looks quite happy now. He is hungry and cannot wait for dinner to start. You all go for dinner...

Thanks for spending an afternoon with Johnnie. We hope you understand that Johnnie was not trying to misbehave - it is just that his condition makes it more difficult to relate to other people and his surroundings. However, we can help him learn appropriate responses along the way.

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Being Different; Living with Autism.