empathy and mind-blindness

[Guest guest]

I'm trying to clarify the concepts of empathy and mind-blindness. Empathy is

ability to understand what someone else is feeling; mind-blindness is thinking

people can read your mind?

I struggle with the concept of empathy, as it makes people feel cold, but I know

I'm very sensitive, but perhaps don't know how to show the appropriate

emotion/action to show I care. It's like my emotions get " stuck " .

I know people can't read my mind, but my little boy gets frustrated because he

thinks we should just know what he wants. He also can't read emotions at all. I

can to some degree, but still miss a lot of crucial stuff.

Miranda

[Guest guest]

You may enjoy reading Dr. Greenspan's book on Engaging Autism. He

writes about this issues you bring up. His perspective is

that with kids forming a close relationship is key. He writes

about ways to do that with kids that are self absorbed with their own interests.

Our therapist thought that is was the lack of shared

perspective taking in relationships that make them distant.

I guess a person may not respond to another for many reasons

other than lack of empathy. Perhaps feeling overwhelmed by the

emotions of another person may make an AS person feel they want to retreat.

A lot of people with AS miss non verbal modes of communication

and it may seem that they are clueless but they are relying

on very concrete verbal information rather than subtle clues.

You can start practicing with your son non verbal

comunication each day for a little part. Such as

if he asks a question answer with a thumbs up or

down. Wave bye until he waves back. The RDI program

is a social program for AS that teaches these skills

to parent to use with their kids.

I know my daughter doesn't look at me often when I talk

to her and I was not doing much about that except telling

her to look at me. Now I try to answer in a way that she

has to look at how I respond (some of the time, if I do this

too much she get's annoyed).

Pam

>

> I'm trying to clarify the concepts of empathy and mind-blindness. Empathy is

ability to understand what someone else is feeling; mind-blindness is thinking

people can read your mind?

>

> I struggle with the concept of empathy, as it makes people feel cold, but I

know I'm very sensitive, but perhaps don't know how to show the appropriate

emotion/action to show I care. It's like my emotions get " stuck " .

>

> I know people can't read my mind, but my little boy gets frustrated because he

thinks we should just know what he wants. He also can't read emotions at all. I

can to some degree, but still miss a lot of crucial stuff.

>

> Miranda

>