Picky 3-Year-Old Heads Home -- Alone! -- For Lunch

Madeline Holler — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:13:00 GMT

Let's just say parents of the 3-year-old girl who left school alone and unnoticed are pissed.

Their little girl Leonie didn't like the day's lunch menu so she didn't line up with the others when it was time for their afternoon meal. Instead, she walked out of the school and through a gate that had been left unlocked and headed down the street, making her way back home.

Nobody at her school noticed that she wasn't in the lunchline. In fact, they didn't realize she had even left. Mercifully, a real estate agent saw the little girl in her school uniform, no bag, no coat, and unescorted and went right over to see why she was out in the streets.

Leonie had walked around a quarter of a mile and was heading towards a busy dual carriageway when luckily a passer-by spotted her and escorted safely back to school.

It wasn't until the girl was brought back that the school realized she had left, which is when they called her parents. Of course, they're going over their safety standards and making sure all the gateways are locked and secure.

So just what was being served that day for lunch? Pork chops! Damn, girl. My kids would have made the opposite trek -- home to school -- for those eats!

Photo: Daily Mail

Autism: Can We Please Come Out From Behind the Shadow of "Rain Man"?

Karen Murphy — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:04:00 GMT

I admit it, I'm fascinated by autism. I think it's because there are elements of autism, elements of behaviors that used to be labeled as anything from "eccentric" to "very eccentric" to "downright weird", that strike a chord somewhere deep within me. I may be speaking naively and I know there will be those who disagree with me, but I think that in some ways there's a really fine line between what we think of as "normal" and what's on the autism spectrum. In other words, I think a matter of degree separates those with sensory issues and those who are immersed in a truly different world that most of us can't even imagine.

But I think for most of us, our idea of what autism is was deeply shaped by the movie Rainman, which although (to me) it gave a wonderful portrayal of a slice of one aspect of autism, it was limited by the fact that autism itself is a spectrum which means that a single portrayal cannot even come close to showing the amazing nuances and degrees of this maddeningly misunderstood and oft-debilitating malady.

A view of autism in childhood began for me with the movie Run Wild Run Free, which upon closer examination doesn't even purport to be about autism at all. But coupled with this amazing video it could explain, perhaps, my idealistic notion that the world of autism is really only frightening or "wrong" to those of us who can't see inside it.

Getting back to Rainman, the problem there was that it only skimmed the surface, as I see it. Yes, certain behaviors were mimicked and responses that parents all over are likely familiar with were shown. But what's missing is both the anguish experienced by families of these amazing people as they strive to connect with and otherwise force a fit to them, and the rich world inhabited by those who are autistic themselves.

With now 1 in every 94 boys being somewhere on the autism spectrum and a new diagnosis made every 20 minutes, I'm hoping that our incomplete picture of autism can be fleshed out a little somehow, and soon, to provide support for everyone concerned.

Strollerderby : Run Wild Run Free

Picky 3-Year-Old Heads Home -- Alone! -- For Lunch

Autism: Can We Please Come Out From Behind the Shadow of "Rain Man"?