I have followed articles on pyschic autistic children with great interest for some time, especially after reading the book Ausomism, by Suzy Miller.

We had an autistic boy at the school who really seemed an unsuitable candidate for integration into a comprehensive high school, even though the boys were quite nice to him, often coming to fetch him of their own accord when he turned up at the wrong classroom. Often, he would become stressed and hit himself so hard that I'd run across the playground and gently take his hand to stop him.

Then he took to isolating himself on an upper veranda (which was duly made safer) and again I'd see him hitting himself. Not really able to leave my "post", I decided to try an experiment and started to send him soothing, loving thoughts every time I'd see him this way and, it seemed to me at least, he'd calm down.

Then, one day, we were having a year meeting and the kids had to sit on the carpeted floor. This kind of change in routine was difficult for him and, when I saw him against the wall, I decided to go sit with him. Again, I focused on sending soothing, loving thoughts and he began to shift his body a little closer and angle towards me. A passing teacher commented (kind of condescendingly towards him, I guess) "Ma'am, he's really taken a liking to you."

At the end of year 10, his parents sent him somewhere else for his education, which I believe was in his best interest.