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"In the '90s alone, Autism cases rose 172%. Nobody knows why"
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Alone in autism
The numbers are startling: As many as one out of 166 children will develop autism. While researchers struggle to find out why, parents and their kids struggle to cope.
BY ALYSSA ABKOWITZ
Mary Grace Mauney leans back and stretches her legs out toward the sky. The squeaky chains get louder as she pushes forward, and her long, dark strands of hair blow past her haunting blue eyes. For a moment, her backside leaves the yellow seat of the swing as she lifts off into the air. She methodically pulls her splayed legs back, flexing her hamstrings, and her body follows, swaying past the wooden bars. Her forearms wrap around the chains. She revs up her legs again and continues to soar.
The constant back and forth motion soothes her. It's a motion she can control, unlike some of her other thoughts and actions. Sometimes she likes to sway slowly, her heels grazing the bottom of the matted dirt in her back yard. She can twirl, too, twisting her knees back and forth. Other times, she'll just sit -- grasping the chains and slowly rocking. But when she gets the swing going, really going, it's like she's vaulting over the treetops and leaving earth, until gravity pulls her back down.
Mary Grace, who is 16, has been swinging on the set as long as she can remember. It's been reinforced four times as she's grown from child to teenager. It's her place to think, to get so deep inside herself that the world seems to disappear. It doesn't matter if the temperature is 20 degrees or 90 degrees. Mary Grace swings almost every day to think about things, or else to forget about things and just get lost in the motion. She can reach the sky as many times as she wants. Sometimes she'll swing for hours before her feet gently touch the dirt and she comes to a halt. It's time to return to reality. Continue here: [link to sarasota.creativeloafing.com]
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