h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6241733.stm

This is interesting - Cartoons to aid autistic children; A project that has helped a small group of autistic children understand more about human emotions is being launched nationwide.

The project uses cartoons narrated by the actor Stephen Fry to help teach the youngsters about facial expressions.

My gorgeous daughter has all sorts of medical, learning & physical difficulties related to her brain - which is why I'm interested in all this sort of thing.

I also came across this when reading the other article, which says that autistic children don't daydream! I'd never heard that said before, I wonder if it's true? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4751075.stm

Hi Petahow lovely to see you around!
Andrew talks about his feelings a lot more and he's told me he used to be scared of looking in people's eyes (he won't make eye contact with a stranger, even now) but he will engage with family and friends. I am sure the cards/expression/smiley faces helped.

Hi Galaxy Babe

I was hoping you'd spot this!

Had you heard about this project? I thought it was a really fascinating idea - some of the people we're had on the site who had Aspberger's said that they could understand smileys more than they could understand faces - so I was interested to see this concept follow over to a real life application.

Interesting, I wonder if we can get to the core of the problem.

I also wonder how many people growing up with Thomas the tank engine were saved from a life of autistic shyness. After all it's a spectrum disorder and lighter sufferers might have been able to grasp the show enough to learn from it.

Hi DrMO

Do you think shyness might be a spectrum disorder? My son is unusually shy and I've tried to investigate many times - there doesn't seem to be a shy society unfortunately, although I have searched for one. I'd be really interested in one if it existed. I've also heard that shyness can be caused by taking steroids during pregnancy, which I did, under doctors orders of course, but I regret it now. Well kind of, of course I love him as he is, but life can be hard if you can't communicate well with people.

My daughter is special too, but all of these things are sent to us to make life interesting I guess, I wouldn't change a thing!

Hey Peta, does your son have friends to play with? I find shyness can be overcome with good friends.