So okay, I hope this doesn't sound mean. I've noticed that a lot of my fellow parents of autistic kids have their own pragmatic language issues (actually, lots of people have this issue, but I've noticed an unusual concentration when I'm at group meetings--some form of shadow syndrome? Who knows?). More specifically, they don't seem to notice when they've held the floor for too long.

Now, I happen to be hypersensitive to this behavior: my working theory is that, as the third child, I had to fight for air time and am always waiting for people to pause. So people who interrupt, assume they know what I'm going to say, or talk w/o interruption get me tense. Which makes me feel bad b/c then I worry that that's the way someone's going to perceive my kid, b/c she may not pay attention to someone else's clear irritability or boredom. So I'm sitting there, trying to understand and to be a little kind, while my heart's racing.