As a parent of a child with autism and as a teacher I have a difficulty when others report that students with ASD lack empathy. I try to correct this faulty judgment when I have the opportunity to do so, by explaining that there really is not lack of empathy, nor any absence of the ability to feel this. There may however be a different way of processing or expressing the feeling, and also a challenge with understanding the perspective and therefore the experience of others. This is fundamentally different than the judgment that an individual lacks the capacity for empathy.

My son Harrison has recently begun to process grief. It hit him hard at age 10 when his BI, Roberta’s dog was sick and dying. It hit him all at once. He did not process it at two when his great grandma died, or at 5 when our guinea pig died, or at 6 when his rabbit died, or at 8 when his other great grandma died. He was somehow not visibly affected. He did not ask about it and he may have cried a few tears... but then it was basically never mentioned again.

He was devastated about the dog, Boomer, and generously gave the dog one of his own stuffies to comfort him. When I suggested that he might like the stuffed bear back after Boomer had passed away, he said no- it would be for Roberta to keep.

I talked to a number of our school district counselors and all suggested that it was important for him to let his tears come so we spent many an evening with Harrison in tears. We encouraged him to cry and we also started him seeing a counselor privately to assist him with processing his emotions.

Shortly after this we had to tell him that our neighbour, Mrs. L., was also dying. I didn’t really want to because we knew he would be further devastated. We again welcomed his tears and he had many questions. I noticed that he was looking to me to see if I was crying when he was and he often asked if I was sad too. We reinforced that it was important to let his sadness come and cry his tears, or else his sadness may come out in other ways, such as anger.

In retrospect, one of the things we encouraged that proved to be most helpful was to be giving toward others and to work to comfort them and understand that they were grieving as well. His focus on the perspective of others helped him to move the process along for himself and to feel that he had some power. He couldn’t change the circumstances, but he was empowered by his ability to give to others.

Interestingly, we found that he seemed most anxious and concerned about how he would remember those he had lost. He seemed aware of his own lack of episodic memory and we began to build and revisit the memories he had by telling stories of the dog and our neighbour and also the kindness he was showing in the process.

I wrote a story for him that recalled his experiences with our neighbour, and his visit to her in the hospital during which he read Mrs. L. the story “Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present.” I assisted him in writing his own lists based on the book “The Tenth Best Thing About Barney” which he was able to share as well. He showed his appreciation for others and it gave his feeling of loss a place to be... surrounded by other feelings.

I also worked with him to associate memories with real items in a meaningful way for those he was losing. He subsequently began to create memory symbols for those he had lost long, long ago and to have tears for them as well. A ladybug came to represent our neighbour, and a goldfish represented his grandmother who passed away when he was 2. This might be best explained with an excerpt of the story I wrote for him:

That same day when Harrison’s mom was working in the garden, she called him outside. She showed him a little ladybug that she had found... the first ladybug of spring.

She said, “Harrison, I want you to hold this ladybug. Look at it. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Harrison held out his hand and the little creature climbed up his fingers.
“Do you like it?” his mom asked.
“Yes” Harrison responded.
“Can you keep it forever?”
“No...” Harrison replied.
“That’s right...” said his mom. “You can hold it for a short time, and you can enjoy how beautiful it is. You can’t keep it forever... but you can remember this moment...”

Harrison looked at his mom and then looked again at the ladybug.

“The ladybug is like Mrs. L. We can’t keep her forever, and now she has to fly away home... just like a ladybug. What we get to keep is how wonderful it was to know her while she was here and we can hold her memory in our hearts forever.”

Harrison’s mom smiled at him... and he smiled back to her.
She said, “We are lucky... whenever we see a ladybug in the garden now we will think of Mrs. L. We have a connection to a sweet memory.”

We manually created and inserted the physical association with a concrete item to assist him with sorting and organizing his memories. The symbols that represented different people seemed to assist him with feeling that he had something to hang onto and a place to revisit and access his memories and process his sadness.

Last week Harrison’s Great Grandmother passed away. She was 103 years old and had been suffering from dementia for many years. Even though he had only met her as a baby, he was still upset when we told him. However, he seemed more upset that he didn’t really know her. My husband and I began to tell him stories of his Great Grandmother and we assisted Harrison in writing them down.

This week Harrison read these stories aloud at her memorial. This was an amazing gift and tribute because after many years of needing constant care and not being socially present in the lives of those attending, this little boy brought to the fore the memories of his grandma at her best. It was touching to see the shift in the mood as he brought her to life once again in their minds.

This little boy of mine has a very big heart, and a lot of strength. He has a huge capacity for empathy... he just needed a framework of support to assist him with processing in a slightly different way.

Leah Kelley
June 2009