Autism Outsider: A Behaviorist Perspective

By Mikal Britt

I’ve been a behavior therapist for almost ten years now. This was never my intention. But one summer when I worked at the now-defunct FACT Summer Sleepaway Camp at UCLA, my entire life changed. It was a “sink or swim” full-immersion situation: spend one week living with and taking care of 115 kids with autism, all age ranges and functioning abilities. I had absolutely no experience, except for the fact that I happen to be a calm, patient, and kind person (or so I’m told). The experience at the camp opened my heart in ways I never could’ve predicted. And at the end of the week, I was called “a natural” and hired by FACT as a behavior therapist. The following week I started working in an elementary school. Since that time, I have taken numerous training sessions, attended conferences, read many books, and had enough “field experience” for a lifetime. So although I never studied autism in school, it has incidentally become a topic of expertise that I know more about than almost anything else in my life.

Because of my lack of formal training and not having any family members on the spectrum, I always thought of myself as an outsider in the field. But for whatever reason, the universe had put autism in my life. Which is ok, because I love autism. I mean, I really LOVE AUTISM. I love people with autism. I love the gifts as much as the challenges.

So why do I love autism? Because people with autism are the ultimate “outside the box” thinkers. I have always been attracted to people who do things their own way, who live original lives, who fight against the mainstream status quo. Autism is the most extreme version of this. In fact, when I was in high school, before I really knew what autism was, I wished I had a little bit of it, because I thought it was make me a more interesting person.

When I work with clients on the spectrum, I always try to go into their world before I help them navigate the daily existence of being in a neuro-typical world. I want to be in their shoes. I want to see and hear things the way they do, I want to understand the way their mind works. And I can only do that by fully entering into their world. By understanding their unique interpretation of stimuli, I can then have the tools I need to access them and teach them the skills I want them to learn.

There are the days of beauty and laughter and pure joy when I watch kids on the spectrum make art and music and use language in interesting ways. And then there are the more difficult days filled with tantrums and wildly inappropriate and disruptive behaviors. When those tough days occur, I always try to have sympathy. I try to remember that these kids are trying the best they can, because every day is a struggle for them, more than anything I can probably comprehend. These kids are always doing their best to “hold it together”. I don’t think a single kid on the spectrum ever wants to have a tantrum, I don’t think they feel good about “making a scene”. They simply cannot control it. Reminding myself to have sympathy and compassion for them prevents me from getting frustrated and losing my own temper.

And when I do have moments where I feel myself growing angry, as we all do, I try to be aware of the signs my body is giving me. I notice that my heartbeat starts to escalate, my skin grows hot and red, I begin to sweat. But as long as I am aware of what’s happening with my own body, I can control it. And if I can control myself, it will help control the client. Because the minute I start shouting or yelling, then I know I have completely lost the ability to make the situation better. And my job is to always make the situation better.

I want to celebrate autism, not cure it. I want the world to accept it and shower it with love not fear. Autism is here for a reason. It is an evolutionary step towards something greater than us. To me, autism represents an advanced mind that is misunderstood. I fully believe autism is a gift, even when it doesn’t look that way. Even when a family must sell their home to pay for therapy, even when marriages fall apart, even when meltdowns ruin a wonderful day trip – autism is a fascinating and beautiful extension of humanity. And as long as we continue to have therapists helping families and scientists studying the condition, we are on the path towards a greater understanding of ourselves and our world. It’s all an experiment. Whether I’m trying a new behavior technique or introducing a new change in routine, I remind myself it is all an experiment and sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but at the end of the day, no matter the results, we can always go back to love and acceptance.