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Comment by kszx | Hacker News Reader

The part about "Wilbarger Protocol" sounds like torture.

"When he was unable to regulate the information coming into his brain, I would perform a process called the Wilbarger Protocol. It was intimate. I would move a soft brush on Scooter’s arms, legs, neck, and back. Then he would put his hand in mine and I would grab his fingers one at a time, compressing the joints in toward his palm. Firm but gentle, confident but caring. I would watch his face, look for some tension to drop from it and then linger there, count to 10 in my head, and then move on to the next one."

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Safe sensory stimulation is a very useful tool here. It's why Temple Grandin made the much-magligned "hug box", it's why weighted blankets are useful (need to get myself one of those). It's about building a place where the stimulations and noise of the world can be filtered out for a few moments.

There's a lot of literature about how Autism, and the various spectrum disorders, like the former Asperger's Syndrome are processing disorders. That the normal filters in a brain don't form for various reasons. And if a kid is unable to create those filters and work them actively, you get low functioning Autism, because they don't have a ruleset to focus on as to what are the important details and what aren't, thus leading very quickly to a level of overstimulation and "acting out".

Course, this is my assumption from talking to some High Functioning Autistics, and my own experience as being spectrummy. Mileage can and will vary.

I can't speak for adults, but many children with autism seek pressure and need various sensory input. Brushing isn't all that unusual, and some kids actually will request brushing. There was a time when my daughter would bring brushes to us (she's non-verbal) to request it. Sometimes she'll want pressure to her face and head, or to be squeezed.

Finding the right balance of "stim" is really important to people with Autism. Too much or too little creates a panic. Temple Grandin's Hug Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug_machine) is another good example. This was a hard concept to grasp growing up in the 80's with a severely autistic younger brother, but became clear in later years when I worked at group home. My experiences were very similar to the OP.

My autistic daughter is 3. She holds her arms up to me and says "scratch". I gently rub her arms with my fingertips. If I stop she will hold her arms out again and says "scratch". I have never heard of "Wilbarger Protocol" before reading this article but it exactly describes what my daughter is prompting me to do.

I once asked my daughter's therapist what she would be like as an adult. They politely decline to answer that question. Now I know why.

Actually, the reason the therapist (and almost all therapists for young children) won't answer that question is because outcomes have so much variation. I'm privy to the stories of many kids with autism (because I have one, and we're networked with other families) and we hear of children losing their diagnosis (being 'mainstreamed') and others at the point of being institutionalized.

It would be unprofessional for the therapist to say anything to try and predict the outcome for your daughter at age 3, as that prediction might impact your treatment and planning. If the therapist tells you to prepare for the absolute worst, you could be less inclined to try therapies that might work wonders. If a therapist tells you she'll be fine, you might also change your tactic.

Please don't assume that the therapist is withholding bad news, as that may not be the case.

Funny, it sounds very calming to me. Intimacy and physical contact from a trusted individual, done in a predictable and caring manner.

I'm not sure the people in the story were trusted by Scooter; it seems he had no real choice but to interact with them in rather banal ways. They seemed to regularly deceive or outright lie to him on at least several occasions throughout the story.

> They seemed to regularly deceive or outright lie to him

This would matter more if this wasn't how society runs in general. White (and not so white) lies are the lubrication of social interaction: when a random someone asks how your day is going, they don't really want to know. They want to hear something positive or perhaps a mildly amusing quip. Anything else and the social interaction breaks down uncomfortable silence.

Took me awhile to learn that one.

Scooter may have ended up interacting with society better, or worse, had he always been told the truth, but human interactions are never so clean. I have trouble faulting the narrator of this story for being human in such a difficult and uncomfortable situation.

I often hear this take, but I think it's overly simplified. It’s completely acceptable to respond in a negative fashion to ‘how was your day’. People just don’t want details.

So, “Stressful” or “Annoying” is fine. But “I had this one customer who…” is not.

The only real lie is optional and it's mostly about how you want people to think of you. If 10% of the time you’re slightly unhappy that's considered reasonable, but if your unhappy 90% of the time people don't generally want to be around you.

I didn't lay any fault, only facts.

I'm not sure what it matters what society does in general, Scooter is not interacting with all of society, but rather the people in his immediate location.

Furthermore, you're talking as if these are all foregone conclusions but that is not the case. We are alive now, have agency, and can make changes as we see fit.

As a person who experienced this, while it slightly calms you down, it also can make you really angry if you don’t like it.

If you aren't being physically restrained, it's rather straightforward to resist an unwelcome touch. Autism is not associated with extreme weakness or passivity.

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