The Talk…
I have a two-fer family. In addition to my son being bi-racial (African-American and white), he is on spectrum for Autism. After the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, I’ve been thinking about how to discuss this with my son. Many African-American parents have blogged about having “the talk” with their children about how to deal with the police and racism in general. There have been plenty of great posts about this that others have written, so I will not cover that ground. This post will discuss this from an Autism perspective, since this is a “risk” factors for encounters with law enforcement or vigilantes with more fire-power than sense. Although folks with Autism are at greater risk for encounters with police, it’s often because they are likely victims but communication difficulties often prevent them from getting help or get them in trouble when they ask for it. This is something that I first heard about in this story from NPR, and it makes sense. Folks with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) have behaviors that can appear as defiant, but are not intended that way.
To give some background, my son is pretty verbal, and is not intellectually impaired (I don’t like cognitive impairment because his communication disorders are a cognitive impairment — but his IQ is fine). In addition, he can make eye-contact (something that police often use as a sign of verity/non-evasiveness), and he is generally compliant with authority. In his case, I feel he still needs some strategies because of the risk of him being a
To give some background, my son is pretty verbal, and is not intellectually impaired (I don’t like cognitive impairment because his communication disorders are a cognitive impairment — but his IQ is fine). In addition, he can make eye-contact (something that police often use as a sign of verity/non-evasiveness), and he is generally compliant with authority. In his case, I feel he still needs some strategies because of the risk of him being a