I am not a child psychologist, and do no pretend to be one as well. Still, I put forth the hypothesis of child behavior that resembles what teachers call autism (teachers not being licensed as child psychiatrists, yet still demanding that children get drugged).
When there are severely mixed messages in the environment, to the point where the child feels like he/she is walking on eggshells lest some hypersensitive ninny hear the proverbial “dog whistle”, the child shuts down, afraid to interact. Bubble guns, pop tarts, chicken fingers, cartoon superheroes, all bad! It’s like living in a looney toon.
I’m not a psychologist either but I think you may be on to something. I believe I very nearly shut down at one point in my childhood because of all the adult craziness to which I was exposed. I found schoolwork absurdly easy except for times when I withdrew to the point that I was almost unaware of what was going on around me. I clearly remember going through a long period of being haunted by the conviction that one of two things must be true. Either I was living in a world of insanity or I myself was as crazy as a human could be, I could not shake the belief that one or the other MUST be true of necessity. I could see so clearly that almost all the adults in my life were preaching one thing and practicing another. I finally resigned myself to the idea that most of those around me were even more confused than I was and that is when I started to learn how to cope with life but If I were a child now going through the same struggle I would probably be diagnosed as autistic or some other clinical label would be assigned to me and I would likely be put on Ritalin or some other devil’s concoction. I am so glad that drugs were not so easily available then or who knows what I may have gotten hooked on.
We’re sliding in the direction of North Korea. You’ll be free to sing praises to the Dear Leader, while any other form of speech might be suspect and could possibly land you in hot water.