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Empathy without a Roadmap
Empathy in Special Circumstances
“Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don’t have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can’t stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there’s too much stimulation.” — Temple Grandin
Children with Behavioral Challenges
I admire Temple Grandin and her body of work, tremendously. But, I don’t agree with the beginning of Ms. Grandin’s statement because I truly don’t believe that “normal” people have an incredible lack of empathy. I think “they” (humans with a broad spectrum of personalities, abilities, and awareness) have an incredible lack of comfort, skill, and practice expressing and conveying empathy. But I do agree that, as in Ms. Grandin’s stated example, many people can often lack empathy in what I will call “special circumstances.”
As is the case with invisible illnesses (such as autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue, or chronic pain), a child’s special needs are not always apparent to the eye. In many children with Down’s syndrome, yes, and in many children with more severe cases of Autism — but in children, or adults, on the milder end of the Autism spectrum, with Attention Deficit…
