Autism and trains

Charlotte Moore, who wrote an excellent book about her two (out of three) autistic sons, George and Sam, writes in today's Guardian about 'what is believed to be the first animation series aimed specifically at the very young autistic child'. It's called The Transporters  and is newly launched on DVD. In the course of her article, which you can read here, she wonders why autistic children seem to love vehicles so much. "I sometimes think a fanatical devotion to [Thomas the Tank Engine] could almost be treated as a diagnostic symptom," she writes.

It's interesting she should say this - I was once told the exact same thing by a consultant at Great Ormond Street, who explained that a number of her colleagues privately shared the theory. Read what Professor Simon Baron-Cohen has to say about trains and autistic children in Charlotte Moore's article - apparently it's all to do with "systems", rather fascinatingly. 

Comments

My autistic son's interest in vehicles ends at their wheels - he likes that they spin, and likes to spin them.

[Jenny]

My son is now 11 and is on the autistic spectrum. His fanatical devotion to Thomas included endlessly repeating the dialogue from one episode and smashing his Brio trains together in endless crashes. I've always wondered whether the static faces on Thomas and pals attract the autistic child as they seem to find "reading" facial expressions so difficult.

Just to cheer up anyone else reading this, my child has Hyperlexia see www.hyperlexia.org and is now almost
indistinguishable from his peers.

[Claire]

My son has Aspergers Syndrome and is now almost 13. He adored Thomas the Tank Engine and of course knew absolutely every detail of every train and episode when he was little. He is still a systems man, totally. (BTW Baron-Cohen's extreme male brain theory is incomplete and needs revision.The man is so repetitive and uninformative, it's unreal he's still in charge at Cambridge Center for Autism Research.)
Luckily, the train system thing seems to have morphed into understanding many other kinds of systems that have made my son the toast of his class: football, Formula One, politics. In fact, he is in many ways a normal bloke, albeit with a 20 year old's interests and vocabulary for his passions. Can't say it's ever made him more aware of faces or emotional stuff, rather more obviously systems are a refuge from having to cope with the realities of people. So go for the Transporters!

[Heidi]

Our eldest son, 3, is autistic, and I had high hopes for The Transporteres DVD. We finally received our copy, but darling Sami was totally unimpressed! I think we will persevere and keep sneaking an episode or two in between the endless Pingu DVDs as on paper it sounds like a brilliant idea.

[Jill]

We were lucky enough to get a copy of the Transporters DVD. My son (he's 5 and has autism) sat through two episodes completely engrossed. We've progressed along this route - one or two episodes at a time - over a period of 3 weeks.

It's hard to tell how profound the impact has been as our lad is non verbal. However, we have noticed that he now studies our faces very closely when we laugh or, if he does something, he turns around to look at our faces. It's only my perception, but it appears he is doing this to gauge our reactions by reading our faces.

Maybe we're reading more into this than it is possible to definitively prove, but anything that makes him look at faces / even attempt to read expressions HAS to be a good thing.

[Marion]

My son has delayed social skills due to sight and hearing impairment, and his behaviour is often similar to an autistic child.

I was recently lucky enough to be sent a copy of this DVD. He loves it and I can see that he is really thinking about the emotions portrayed.

I suspect this DVD will be helpful for a wide range of children, not just autistic but including those with emotional and social problems. Well done to those involved!

[Sharon]

As a parent of an 11 year old Autistic son, I have sent off for a copy of The Transporters and await its arrival with baited breath!!

My son has been obsessed with Thomas and his Friends since he was a dot, and still is for that matter!!

His ability to recognise a still from a particular episode astounds us, but then he has probably watched each episode more than a 1,000 times!!!

He loves Thomas, and of course, Pingu, Rosie & Jim, Tots TV and at the moment, his favourite is Sooty and Co!!! His whole world revolves around the lives of these characters, but not around the everyday happenings of our family, so I am interested in how he will welcome The Transporters into it.

For me, I have always held some comfort from the fact that he is one of many autists who love Thomas the Tank, for me it feels that he is "normal" in some way, the way that society in general would idolise a pop star or film star or celebrity.

I look forward to getting our copy and see if it will engage him the same as his firm favourites do!!

[Elinor Perry-Smith]

This is fascinating, I think there will be a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this.