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I Elizabeth Thomas
AppleTree Staff Writer

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A R T

7/31
1998

74

Detroit Jewish News

•

GL A SS

hen my autistic son,
Mikey, became a tod-
dler, he was so destruc-
tive and unable to concentrate that I
suspended any plans to travel with
him until he was easier to handle.
After three years of not traveling with
him, we decided to take a ferry
across the Channel to France and
1 stay for a few days with friends in the
countryside.
1 Autistic children hate changes in
I their routines, so we anticipated trou-
I ble. The first hint of Mikey's unhappi-
I ness at leaving his home in England
I came as we attempted to drive on to
the ferry.
"No, no boat," he shouted, trying
1 to get out of the car. "Mikey stay
home. Mikey no go to France."
"You have to go to France," I said.
"No one is at home to watch you.
How will you even get back? We
have to take the car on the ferry."
"Mikey stay here," he insisted, try-
ing to open the car door. "Mikey stay
I in England." And with that, he got out
of the car and stood on the pave-
ment.
• "OK, -we'll go on then," I said. "See'
you later." That always worked with
my daughter, Kate, when she was
Mikey's age.
But this technique does not work on
1 autistic children. Mikey was happy for
us to go on without him. When I real-
! ized this, I had to drag him screaming,_,
I back into the car. After a while on the
boat, he calmed down. But he never
relaxed the entire time we were in
France.
Each morning he would wake up
I and shout, "What day is it?" (We
had told him the day we were going
I back to England, to reassure him that
1 he would see his home again.) When

1 Elizabeth Thomas, a native of
I Mississippi, lives in Hampshire,
England, with her husband, Mel,
1 and two children, Kate and Mikey.