Tuesday Blog: Week Eleven

This week I have continued reading the book Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig. Ginny is a Fourteen-year-old girl who is on the autism spectrum. Ginny was removed from her house when she was just nine years old due to her abusive mother. Five years later Ginny is still trying to find her way back home to find and take care of her 'baby doll', which is later revealed to be a baby sister which they have no records of. Ginny who is not allowed on the internet finds her mother on a classmates facebook and attempts to contact her. Ginny's birth mother, in turn, shows up at her 'forever home' and causes a scene while Ginny is still at school. With no regard for her own safety, Ginny persistently tries to meet up with her mother to spite the possible consequences. After many attempts by both Ginny and her Mother, Crystal with a C, her aunt, kidnaps Ginny in hopes to eventually bring her to her mother in Canada. Her plans are spoiled when Ginny's birth father provides the police with information which leads them to bring Ginny back home to her parents and her newborn baby sister. Once she arrives home she is overwhelmed with the flood of questions from her parent and the police. Since they have no knowledge of her younger sibling they do not understand when Ginny says she must go find her and take care of her.

http://parentingchaos.com/wandering-autism-lost-kid/

"I don't want to answer so I wait. Because sometimes if you don't answer then someone will answer for you or someone will say something else to help you know what to say." (Ludwig 240)

https://researchautism.org/elopement-and-autism/

Ginny who struggles with communicating with others, can not figure out exactly what she should say when she returns home. Most of her life, as I explained in my previous blogs, people have been placing labels on her which she lets define her. Being defined by her condition Ginny feels as if she can get away with certain things more than others. For example, Ginny allows others to answer for her or hint to the correct when she does not want to answer. This time in specific Ginny was being questioned as to why she ran away to meet her mother. Ginny's dismissive behavior carries over to her future plans to run away again thinking its not a problem.

https://www.thelittleblackduck.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/poster_communicationAndAutismpdf.png

In life, a lot of times people will refrain from answering a question honestly or at all if their answer would be less then desired by the other person. Ginny's behavior is similar to how most people have acted at least once before in their life. Her behavior could, in fact, be an example of the diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that others either are responsible for taking action or have already done so.