September 2023 – Autism shown on the bonding board: With a small emotional hole!When the Autism Center of the Canton of Lucerne decided to use the bonding board, I was invited for an input and exchange. One form of presentation was rated as particularly helpful as it captures the experiences of both the child with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and other persons involved . The figures are placed on the bonding board in the Y-axis according to their visible emotional state of arousal. They have a hole in their ‘belly’, through which this condition can also be read. However, a key characteristic of ASA is that the perception and mirroring of emotions are impaired. This is represented by a white emotional ring with a much smaller hole and can be described as follows: “The child does not lack emotion, but due to this small hole, has much more difficulty in determining what exactly is going on inside oneself.. It is also much harder for outsiders to look into the hole. Sometimes a parent is also affected by ASD and has, in a ways, a smaller emotional hole too. And what’s more, from the child’s perspective, who finds it challenging to assess the emotions of others, everyonehas small holes, be they parents, siblings, teachers or schoolmates.”
This depiction fosters understanding: “Oh, it’s already exhausting for me to empathize with the one child with the small hole. How much more exhausting it must be for this child to constantly move around in a group of people with – from the childs point of view – small holes, without causing friction.” And on the other hand, the hole sets the agenda: “One must look closely into the hole, sometimes take the time to look under the white ring, even lift my own ringbriefly so that the child can look inside better, explain emotions to each other so that the rings gradually become more transparent.”