This was on the NBC Nightly News this evening:
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I thought that was a pretty good story ?
It amazes me how many Autistic kids just love trains One day as I was boarding my train at the terminal I saw a young boy looking through the window into the cab. I opened the door and started talking to him and his mom I let him blow the horn on the train and it was like I gave him a bar of gold. I told them I couldnt let them in the cab as I was operating but I left the door open so he can watch He cracked me up as he made every station announcement along with the connecting lines from 57 street all the way to canal. Felt good that day
As an autistic kid; adult (whatever; all of us train people are kids at heart) who absolutely loves trains of all kinds, this is pretty cool. The joy on those kids' faces when they hear their voices on the train announcements is priceless. This was a fantastic idea. Perhaps they need to let some of these kids do a cab ride on a real locomotive. I actually got to drive a real locomotive once, which is a train lover's dream.
I’m a retired special education teacher with additional competencies in Travel Instruction. It was not uncommon for ASD students to have a great interest in transit; particularly trolleys and trains. Folks on the autism spectrum prefer structure, predictability and consistency. It is my hypothesis that this is the reason they prefer rail vehicles. First, they are on the structure of a track which will predictably follow a prescribed route. Secondly there is the consistency of the schedule. In our Travel Instruction program we had our greatest success, with learning to travel independently, with people on the spectrum.
Jay
