Thøger Kari Hass wrote an article titled, “The Necessity of Special Interests for Me as a Person on the Autism Spectrum” for The Mighty. In it, he described how, for him, special interests differ from hobbies. For example, if he is engaging in a hobby, and something else comes up, or changes, or he [More...]
FOR PROFESSIONALS:
Your Autistic Student’s Specialized Interest: Don’t Lose it, Use it. Some professionals have tried to put on extinction, or eliminate, an autistic student’s “obsessions” or specialized interests. Perhaps they believed that the interest interfered with learning. Maybe they feared it might lead [More...]
FOR PARENTS:
Why You Should Encourage Your Child's Specialized Interests (Even if you Don't Understand Them) We all have interests, don’t we? Human beings are created to notice things in the world around us, to appreciate beauty, intricacy, patterns. One person may stop to watch a flock of geese fly [More...]