Teammate tells everyone he has autism...

We had encountered a younger child not quite full grown in church, a parent/caregiver was with her constantly. I remember the first time I saw her with my spouse there and knew this one would need more careful treatment than ordinary kids and adults for whatever the child's problems were.

Anyway. Fast forward to lunch and I had a locking D ring full of keys and such off my belt and that child latched onto it and me to examine it by touch. I asked the parent now what? And I was brought up to speed right quick. I suppose by being calm and allowing that child to examine the keys to learn all she could from them made a friend to where for the duration of our visits to church there it became possible for that parent to keep child with us a moment or two now and then because it will be calm around us.

I never really knew what the root cause problem was and would imagine by now with the passage of time it's a adult. Probably with either a caregiver or parent the rest of it's life due to it's ... difficulties being in open society or public activity away from home. She did well considering the challenges imposed upon her.

The big thing I think worked with that one was being calm when being examined like that. Most people want to jump and run away making a scene however the parent would be right there explaining as she has done a thousand times before.

I prefer truckers to be reasonably good at what they do when they have to be. Lives depend on it.