Dangling Action Men out of the Window on bits of String

I never quite worked out what this meant but it was said to be a pastime of Sixth-formers at my school. We had many pastimes in our sixth-form but I don't recall ever doing this. We did measure the mean free path of molecules in a gas using fifth years distributed in the hall and we did weigh fire extinguishers. Never got to hang Action men though. Really weird that. If anyone can explain then drop me a line at the email listed. Maybe its a euphemism for some practice which I never got involved with.

There are at least three people from another planet living on Earth.

Yesterday we watched a programme called My Family and Autism about a single mother with seven children. The four boys all have some form of autism spectrum disorder. The second boy, Luke is thirteen and has Asperger's syndrome. A very articulate child, he has written two books (see Amazon listings) and this programme last night was basically his film. The two younger boys seem to be affected more. However, and this may just be judicious editing, far from seeming like a family devastated by the disorder, they were happy and as my wife said, a great advert for family life. It seems that most problems that children have can be either exacerbated or lessened by the reactions of the parents and other children. The other family members have accepted the boys’ problems. Personally I didn't see that Luke had any problems other than being a boy who liked to read rather than play football and as he said you don't take your kid to a developmental Psychologist if he is obsessed with football so why do so if he is obsessed with, what other children would call, geeky things?

One of the most amazing bits of the programme was when Luke and his younger brother were given coloured glasses, which helped stabilise their vision. Luke got blue glass while his brother got red. This stopped letters dancing on the page and helped Luke walk a straight line along a corridor. Miracle and cheap. Can the NHS take note? If need be, do a cost/benefit analysis of any future care required. Who is normal? Certainly not me if this programme is right.

I have a theory that Autistic Children do not lack the social and emotional apparatus to determine how to interact with other people; they instead have a heightened awareness of the emotional factors in relationships and are just like the rest of us in being unable to decipher them. It is just that 'normal' people do not care about such things. Far from being unemotional, Autistic children are hyper-emotional. Too far? It's just a theory right.

The bottom line is that I feel humbled, having only one pretty balanced child. If Luke's mother can keep her calm with all that going on, then I can be a better father.