[Soothesayer9]

An autistic child was at a party recently I attended. He was very loud and obnoxious and made everyone uncomfortable. I dont know if this was due to the autism or not, but I was glad when he left.

[utahagen]

I am confused by this story. The hallmark of autism used to be an inability to connect emotionally with people; autistics were more likely to be zombies than brats. Yet this story describes an out-of-control kid who would more likely be diagnosed as OCD or as having oppositional defiance disorder.

[muawiyah]

Kids don't even need to be autistic to end up misbehaving exhuberantly ~ if, for example, the kid has never been shopping with the parents to grocery stores and so on, and you are a Boy Scout leader taking the kids out to buy food for their camping trip (to meet 2nd Class, 1st Class, Star, Life or Eagle requirements) that boy will be turning cartwheels and filling a grocery cart before you can say "put that down".

It can get worse!

Many parents with just ordinary kids, to say nothing of autistic kids, avoid taking them into public places ~ so the kids never get a chance to learn what to do or what is expected.

It can be difficult the first time, and there are old biddies and crotchety business types who may well accuse you of "turning your kid loose", but ya' gotta do it. Eventually the kid will figure it out even if the biddies and business types don't.