"Autistic" child on TV tonight

[Davros]

I happened to have the new BBC1 prog The Deputy on while I was clearing up. I spotted the "autistic" child the second the scene started. I wasn't paying full attention and now the sound has gone so don't know if she is coming back. It showed the new cliche - instead of having some amazing power (skill!), she didn't want to be touched. DOn't know if that's a better cliche but its different

I think we should start up a new Mumsnet SN game. We get points every time we come across cliches about our ds's and dd's. For the autie team you will get the following points:

• Autistic people have a special skill: 10 points

• They can't be autistic because they make eye-contact - 5 points

They can't be autistic because they don't spend all day rocking and head-banging - 5 points (but then I'm biased because I heard this one today!)

The list is endless!

I think what Jim Jams said the other day is true too... you say Autistic - and they think 'wheelchairs'! I find that EVERY time i tell someone they always either haven't got a clue so i have to explain....or they start the 'Oh how awful' routine. Someone on here helped me alongtime ago on a similar thread by saying that when they explain it they say 'It's a developmental delay- which has behavioural symptoms'...obviously i word it to suit the audience!!!

I'm afraid my way of describing my son's problems to "outsiders" is often to roar "he's mentally handicapped!" (see other thread with old git). I usually start out with "he's autistic" and this sometimes works, especially as people sometimes have some experience, but if not they get the extremely un-PC version which is designed to embarrass them and usually does (apart from that old git).

50 points for "he can't be affectionate". 100 points if its said as my son is crawing over me kissing me.