However, when I got my next job as a counter person at McDonald's, I had to force myself to look people in the eye. Understanding the need behind the behaviors in autism can help us to teach other ways to meet those needs. For example, a person who bites his hand for hours at a time may have a need for oral or tactile stimulation. It may be that chewing gum or a vigorous arm massage will meet this same need for sensory stimulation but in a more socially acceptable way. Sometimes behaviors in autism are performed to the exclusion of other behaviors because the person is not aware that he has a choice.
More choices mean more freedom.
We need to raise our expectations for persons with autism, not lower them. Remember how an IQ score is obtained. All persons with autism can learn, but they may learn in different ways. This belief helps me to look at what I am doing to support the person's learning, rather than just look at what the person is or is not doing. He would bite, pinch, and hit me whenever I tried to teach him anything.