Just curious on your thoughts. Ds1 is ten years old, severely autistic, non-verbal with severe learning disabilities. But (and I think this is perhaps key) he looks entirely 'normal'.
When we go out be us very closely supervised. He us either on a harness or someone is holding onto an arm the entire time.
In the last few months he has been told off three times for doing next to nothing (this has never really happened before so I think it's age related -ie general public hates 10 year old boys in general). The first two times he stood next to a person in a queue rather than behind them. No pushing - just standing. I usually leave him there and
stand behind him holding onto him. If I pulled him behind there would be a struggle as he likes to stand where he can see - then he'll wait nicely. It is fairly obvious from my language that there is something going on. The third time was yesterday - I took him into a newsagents I go in four or five times a week. He made a move to go into the backroom - I grabbed him before he'd managed to get even behind the counter. Newsagent got really stroppy. I explained. Newsagent carried on being really stroppy.
So wwyd? Obviously newsagent has lost my custom. People talk about handing out cards but I alwayshave to have at least one hand on ds1 which doesn't leave much room for handing out cards. IME when you do explain (as I tried to yesterday) the person just carries on being stroppy.
I suspect this may happen more as we head towards the teen years. Is there a way of making it easier or do I just need to grow a thicker skin and tell the person to fuck off in my head ( don't worry I won't say it).