Playing an instrument gets you out of actions.....
Singing confidently while clutching a music edition of the hymn book will suffice in a pinch, too.
Hymnals and some instruments function nicely as a shield (or weapon) in a pinch as well.
Which I guess gets us back to the point that having a job/role/function in a church service can be an absolute life saver for an autistic Christian as they have an excuse to get out of all the bits that are absolutely excruciating for us. Well, some of the bits. It doesn't solve the problem that there is that strong vibe of "God wants you to be a people person and if you're not then you're a Bad Person (TM)" but it's a start...
It’s occurred to me that I don’t think I have ever met an organist that I would say was definitely neurotypical.
My hypothesis is that it takes a certain sort of mind to be able to coordinate both hands and both feet in that way at the same time.
Does that work for drummers too?
Excellent thought.
The level of coordination needed to be a good all round percussionist or a decent organist is very high
I never had a problem with the co-ordination aspect of the organ. However my proprioception is pretty grim so my accuracy, especially on the pedals, was always the problem.
Given autistic people often struggle with coordination and/or proprioception it's surprising if they would be over-represented amongst instrumentalists who require both. Unless the social isolation gives us enough time to practice past the problem. And a rock solid excuse for avoiding the worst of the Peace is worth four manual console's weight of gold.
I was thinking more that the organist can be part of the congregation while sitting separately, concentrating on a specific task and not having to make eye contact with people. There is one organist I know who really struggles badly with eye contact and keeps turning away while talking; sometimes I end up following him round to his left repeatedly so I can hear what he’s saying. Fortunately that’s not the organist I’m married to.
I'm hoping to stimulate other people - NT but especially ND - to share their perspectives as well. I say especially ND because (a) I think ND voices are under-represented in religious thought and discussion, and (b) I think ND people are more likely to find other ND perspectives useful, especially if they're struggling as I do with mainstream NT perspectives.
Organs and model trains are fantastic. I’ve enjoyed learnng about them as expressions of human uniqueness.
Before the thread goes cold, I hope there could be more discussion about KarlLB’s points (a) and (b).
My interests are more broad than but include ND. My daughters each have a different disability, which adds them to the class of “different from us T folks.” I find KarlLB’s point (a) applies very broadly in religious thought, discussion as well as communities.
One of many evidences I think I see is a lack of diversity of any kind among leadership. Entirely capable people are parts of congregations but not part of leadership (I’m using that broadly as well), and likewise, entirely willing people with a particular skill are not able to excercise such within the community, although they are perfectly able to and would use their skill/s well.
What do you see? What do you think about it? We did hear from one person (I think) in the tread who is a deacon. That’s fantastic. Any others in leadership roles or who would like to be but are not?
Is there an assumption here is that organists are always male? Or is that me gender stereotyping on the model railway references?
My late wife was cross when I mentioned to the vicar that she played the organ, without consulting her first. 😞
She did forgive me and found the organ loft a helpful place of refuge whenever things got too silly.
Mind you, I've never forgotten the Sunday when the vicar asked everyone to turn round the person next to them - always a bad sign - and discuss their goals and plans for the next year.
Given that she was terminally ill with cancer and that this was a 9am service where many of the congregation were north of 80, I didn't think it was particularly appropriate to say the least.
This sort of thing is bad enough when you are NT, inexcusable surely if you are ND in any way.
I don't know what they teach in vicar school these days but pastoral sensitivity ought to be on the curriculum.
Incidentally, the vicar in question is no longer vicar-ing. God 'called' him to another parish after everything went pear-shaped in this one. His witty japes and liturgy-lite approach and 'turn to the person next to you' shtick didn't go down so well there and he ended up leaving the ministry.
That should serve as a warning but there still seem to be clergy coming out with all this sort of crap.
I’m not assuming organists are always male - two out of the three of ours are female.
And in response to Kendel, I’m also aware of two lay readers who suspect they are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. It can work. (It doesn’t always, though; does anyone remember the lay reader Nigel from the BBC series “Rev”, with his encyclopaedic Biblical knowledge and his complete inability to relate to anyone in the congregation?)
Is there an assumption here is that organists are always male? Or is that me gender stereotyping on the model railway references?
My late wife was cross when I mentioned to the vicar that she played the organ, without consulting her first. 😞
She did forgive me and found the organ loft a helpful place of refuge whenever things got too silly.
Mind you, I've never forgotten the Sunday when the vicar asked everyone to turn round the person next to them - always a bad sign - and discuss their goals and plans for the next year.
Given that she was terminally ill with cancer and that this was a 9am service where many of the congregation were north of 80, I didn't think it was particularly appropriate to say the least.
This sort of thing is bad enough when you are NT, inexcusable surely if you are ND in any way.
I don't know what they teach in vicar school these days but pastoral sensitivity ought to be on the curriculum.
Incidentally, the vicar in question is no longer vicar-ing. God 'called' him to another parish after everything went pear-shaped in this one. His witty japes and liturgy-lite approach and 'turn to the person next to you' shtick didn't go down so well there and he ended up leaving the ministry.
That should serve as a warning but there still seem to be clergy coming out with all this sort of crap.
These sorts always think they're fostering community and breaking down barriers between cliques and gently moving people out of their comfort zones.
Of course, what they don't grasp is that It's A Bit More Complicated Than That.
I’m not assuming organists are always male - two out of the three of ours are female.
And in response to Kendel, I’m also aware of two lay readers who suspect they are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. It can work. (It doesn’t always, though; does anyone remember the lay reader Nigel from the BBC series “Rev”, with his encyclopaedic Biblical knowledge and his complete inability to relate to anyone in the congregation?)
Nigel was quite inoffensive in comparison with the Archdeacon.
One of many evidences I think I see is a lack of diversity of any kind among leadership. Entirely capable people are parts of congregations but not part of leadership (I’m using that broadly as well), and likewise, entirely willing people with a particular skill are not able to excercise such within the community, although they are perfectly able to and would use their skill/s well.
What do you see? What do you think about it? We did hear from one person (I think) in the tread who is a deacon. That’s fantastic. Any others in leadership roles or who would like to be but are not?
I am part of a small group which meets every couple of months and one member is autistic and a vicar. I am constantly amazed by what she copes with and how she copes with it and how honest she is about what it costs her simply to be in the world, let alone do the role that she does.
However, I am not speaking from an own voice perspective and as I actually enjoy action songs I have no place on this thread.
I would, however, like to add my thanks to @HelenEva for the link to your blog.
Wow! Someone who enjoys action songs and owns up to doing so must surely constitute a minority on SoF.
I commend you @Nenya for your courage in coming forward.
I may start a new thread about physical actions in worship. We Orthodox have plenty, of course although 'action songs? Is outrage ...'
Something the Orthodox, RCs and Anglo-Catholics have in common with Pentecostals and charismatic is an emphasis on physical actions in worship.
The question I'd have to ask myself of course, is why I'm comfortable - or becoming increasingly comfortable- lighting candles, kissing icons bowing and so on, but would run a mile if an action song started anywhere near me.
I would, I hasten to add, defend to the uttermost Nenya's right to sing them, action them and enjoy them.
Isn't this a question of what one feels comfortable with ? what is familiar to one.
When I went to an ecumenical men's breakfast meeting I would not feel like holding my hands up in the air,waving them around or whispering loudly 'Thank you Jesus.'
I think that the evangelicals amongst us would have felt equally uncomfortable if anyone had asked them to make the sign of the cross.
Isn't this a question of what one feels comfortable with ? what is familiar to one.
When I went to an ecumenical men's breakfast meeting I would not feel like holding my hands up in the air,waving them around or whispering loudly 'Thank you Jesus.'
I think that the evangelicals amongst us would have felt equally uncomfortable if anyone had asked them to make the sign of the cross.
One is comfortable with what one is comfortable with sounds like a truism.
I don't think it's much to do with familiarity though. I'm totally familiar with action songs, the Peace and (in the past) dancing, clapping, and sticking hands in the air and that had not engendered any comfort with those practices.
And in response to Kendel, I’m also aware of two lay readers who suspect they are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. It can work.
Thanks, @Aravis.
I understand from Google that a lay reader is:
(in the Anglican Church) a layperson licensed to preach and to conduct some religious services, but not licensed to celebrate the Eucharist.
Does this person have regular responsibilities in the church? And do those responsibilities include making decisions (or helping make decisions) that affect the operation of the church? That is, do they have any power within the church?
Thanks.
Isn't this a question of what one feels comfortable with ? what is familiar to one.
When I went to an ecumenical men's breakfast meeting I would not feel like holding my hands up in the air,waving them around or whispering loudly 'Thank you Jesus.'
I think that the evangelicals amongst us would have felt equally uncomfortable if anyone had asked them to make the sign of the cross.
One is comfortable with what one is comfortable with sounds like a truism.
I don't think it's much to do with familiarity though. I'm totally familiar with action songs, the Peace and (in the past) dancing, clapping, and sticking hands in the air and that had not engendered any comfort with those practices.
Indeed. I've done all those things and eventually became comfortable and acclimatised to it all in a way my wife never did.
Now I'm doing stuff at the opposite end of the spectrum - crossing myself, bowing, venerating icons - and I'm gradually becoming acclimatised to that too.
I'm not as unselfconscious about it as cradle Orthodox Eastern Europeans, though.
Whilst I think all these things, whether dancing and clapping or ritualised liturgical grooves are generally an issue of socialisation, I can certainly see that many people aren't going to feel entirely comfortable or at ease with any of these practices.
I find, though, that in more formally liturgical settings nobody's trying to get you to conform or to do anything they aren't comfortable with.
Nobody's going to get someone in a half-Nelson and force them to kiss an icon.
Whereas, I'm afraid, in many 'enthusiastic' settings one's spiritual state can be judged or assessed according to how you behave in services/meetings.
I've been thinking about this thread and what one experiences as "friendliness." Particularly @KarlLB - what do you experience as "friendly" to you? Genuine question, no judgment.
ISTM many churches have "friendliness" as a stated goal and value: "We're a friendly church!" I have found that to be inversely true: the more a place trumpets itself as friendly, the less it actually is to newcomers.
Whether or not a worshipping congregation should hold this as a value, let alone for some a primary value, is a separate question. I suppose it's better than hostility, but neutrality is always an option. But I digress.
In the name of being friendly, some places officially post - or unofficially allow - the most extroverted chatty people to approach strangers and newcomers. From what you've said, I expect that this is not something you'd experience as friendly. Fair enough (in escalated versions of this scenario, I have silently wished I were carrying pepper spray, so I sympathize.)
So what would you experience as a worshipping place being friendly to you? Is there any way - not necessarily personal interaction, but also all the nonverbal communication modes of a place - that a worshipping community could express this in a way in which you could receive it? I'm just curious. You obviously have no obligation to answer, and I realize in this you speak only for yourself.
ISTM many churches have "friendliness" as a stated goal and value: "We're a friendly church!" I have found that to be inversely true: the more a place trumpets itself as friendly, the less it actually is to newcomers.
Whether or not a worshipping congregation should hold this as a value, let alone for some a primary value, is a separate question. I suppose it's better than hostility, but neutrality is always an option. But I digress.
I’d say that the value that a worshipping congregation should hold is not friendliness, but rather hospitality.
Thank you for linking to that podcast, @Gwai. It looks very interesting, and I look forward to listening to it!
As an aside, Ian Lasch has another podcast that I enjoy very much—“All Things Rite and Musical,” which he started with the organist/choir director at the church where he used to be assistant rector. And that is the same church where our own Rossweisse was a member and sang in the choir. Small world.
Kendel - the answer is yes, but I hope you’ll excuse me if I don’t go into any further detail as I’m unsure how easy the people would be to identify.
"Yes" is sufficient.
I think it's essential that the church, of all places, seeks to have power spread among all kinds of groups to imbalance power. Because it's not supposed to be about power.
I've been thinking about this thread and what one experiences as "friendliness." Particularly @KarlLB - what do you experience as "friendly" to you? Genuine question, no judgment.
Not seeking to speak for KarlLB but from my autistic perspective friendliness would consist of people I could speak to if I wanted to, but who would stop after "hello" if I wasn't obviously wanting to continue the conversation. There should be people to ask where the loo is (and possession of a loo is the very baseline of Christian inclusion in my book) and generally things need to be readily understandable and predictable as regards what I'm supposed to do. Picking up unwritten instructions is the worst and the least likely to happen from an autistic perspective. So anything requiring spontaneity where you have to judge what is required without being told is horrible.
Written instructions of what to do if I don't feel I can speak to people, particularly relating to the service are very good. I think it's having the options. So if I can't cope with people, friendliness is making it possible for me to participate without peopling.
It’s occurred to me that I don’t think I have ever met an organist that I would say was definitely neurotypical.
My hypothesis is that it takes a certain sort of mind to be able to coordinate both hands and both feet in that way at the same time.
Like driving a manual car ( a dying art in Oz)
But way more complex.
Funny thing is, speaking as an organist (well, someone who has been but doesn't play now) I'd say the issue isn't exactly co-ordination per se. It's two different things:
1. Accuracy - being able to find the right notes on the pedalboard which you can't see while you're doing it
2. Independence - being able to do something completely different with your feet to what you're doing with your hands - a bit like the 'rub your abdomen while patting your head' thing.
As I have poor proprioception I found the first of these particularly difficult. I'm the sort of musician who guaranteed will make a mistake playing a piece of any length. It won't be the same mistake every time, and there will be a background level of mistakes regardless of how well practiced and well known the piece is. In sporting activities, people talk about learning from what happens when you try different things, but I can get wildly different results from doing what to me feels and looks like exactly the same thing. I just don't have the fine control. I drop things a lot too. I have vivid recollections of school PE masters teaching everyone else about getting the tennis ball into a particular part of the opponent's court while I was (and still am) unable to even connect with the ball at all more than one time in three. I have absolutely no control whatsoever over where it goes after I hit it, if I hit it at all. I'm actually too terrible at ball sports to even play them for enjoyment, because I can't actually do the basic actions of them, even badly.
But this may be the dyspraxia which is frequently co-morbid with autism.
BTW - and apropos of nothing - I have just decided I will stop using the abbreviation "ASD". I don't consider it to inherently be a disorder. It's a difference.
I just read a chapter entitled "Think Your Family is a Mess? Biblical Families R Us." from the book Eve Isn't Evil: Feminist Readings from the Bible to Upend our Assumptions, by Julie Faith Parker. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 2023.
Towards the last part of the chapter, she discusses the special care Jacob gave his son, Joseph. She wonders if Joseph may have had autism. She sees how Joseph was not suited for work in the fields. Joseph does have special abilities that will eventually save his family.
Ms Parker sees this because she has a son who has Asperger's Syndrome. She sees herself taking care of her son's special needs just like Jacob takes care of Joseph's needs as well.
A book she cites is Lavine, Samuel L. Was Yoseph on the Spectrum? Understanding Joseph in the Torah, Midrash and other Classical Jewish Sources. Jerusalem: Urim, 2018
Comments
It gets you out of *lot* of crap!
Which I guess gets us back to the point that having a job/role/function in a church service can be an absolute life saver for an autistic Christian as they have an excuse to get out of all the bits that are absolutely excruciating for us. Well, some of the bits. It doesn't solve the problem that there is that strong vibe of "God wants you to be a people person and if you're not then you're a Bad Person (TM)" but it's a start...
I have the music edition of Complete Mission Praise. I think there's a good chance it could stop a bullet.
It would be nice to find a good use for it.
I was waiting for the "and nothing of value would be lost" type comments
Or children’s Sunday school music leader?
………”Deep and wide; deep and wide. There’s a fountain flowing……….”
Depends if you get a good swing with it.
Sounds to me like you're letting them get too close. It needs launching while they're still some distance away.
More satisfying when they've already done the cheesy grin and you can see the horror dawning on their faces.
My hypothesis is that it takes a certain sort of mind to be able to coordinate both hands and both feet in that way at the same time.
Does that work for drummers too?
I don't think it's quite as complex but I've not known many drummers.
I have met plenty, but they tend not to be the kind of organist you get in churches (at least not liturgical ones)
It depends on the drummer or organist; between the best I've encountered I'd be hard pressed to say which had the better coordination.
Im an organist and my son is an excellent drummer. He has proper skills.
Excellent thought.
The level of coordination needed to be a good all round percussionist or a decent organist is very high
I never had a problem with the co-ordination aspect of the organ. However my proprioception is pretty grim so my accuracy, especially on the pedals, was always the problem.
Given autistic people often struggle with coordination and/or proprioception it's surprising if they would be over-represented amongst instrumentalists who require both. Unless the social isolation gives us enough time to practice past the problem. And a rock solid excuse for avoiding the worst of the Peace is worth four manual console's weight of gold.
Organs and model trains are fantastic. I’ve enjoyed learnng about them as expressions of human uniqueness.
Before the thread goes cold, I hope there could be more discussion about KarlLB’s points (a) and (b).
My interests are more broad than but include ND. My daughters each have a different disability, which adds them to the class of “different from us T folks.” I find KarlLB’s point (a) applies very broadly in religious thought, discussion as well as communities.
One of many evidences I think I see is a lack of diversity of any kind among leadership. Entirely capable people are parts of congregations but not part of leadership (I’m using that broadly as well), and likewise, entirely willing people with a particular skill are not able to excercise such within the community, although they are perfectly able to and would use their skill/s well.
What do you see? What do you think about it? We did hear from one person (I think) in the tread who is a deacon. That’s fantastic. Any others in leadership roles or who would like to be but are not?
My late wife was cross when I mentioned to the vicar that she played the organ, without consulting her first. 😞
She did forgive me and found the organ loft a helpful place of refuge whenever things got too silly.
Mind you, I've never forgotten the Sunday when the vicar asked everyone to turn round the person next to them - always a bad sign - and discuss their goals and plans for the next year.
Given that she was terminally ill with cancer and that this was a 9am service where many of the congregation were north of 80, I didn't think it was particularly appropriate to say the least.
This sort of thing is bad enough when you are NT, inexcusable surely if you are ND in any way.
I don't know what they teach in vicar school these days but pastoral sensitivity ought to be on the curriculum.
Incidentally, the vicar in question is no longer vicar-ing. God 'called' him to another parish after everything went pear-shaped in this one. His witty japes and liturgy-lite approach and 'turn to the person next to you' shtick didn't go down so well there and he ended up leaving the ministry.
That should serve as a warning but there still seem to be clergy coming out with all this sort of crap.
And in response to Kendel, I’m also aware of two lay readers who suspect they are somewhere on the autistic spectrum. It can work. (It doesn’t always, though; does anyone remember the lay reader Nigel from the BBC series “Rev”, with his encyclopaedic Biblical knowledge and his complete inability to relate to anyone in the congregation?)
These sorts always think they're fostering community and breaking down barriers between cliques and gently moving people out of their comfort zones.
Of course, what they don't grasp is that It's A Bit More Complicated Than That.
Nigel was quite inoffensive in comparison with the Archdeacon.
I did feel a bit sorry for the Archdeacon in terms of his being a gay priest in the CofE.
I am part of a small group which meets every couple of months and one member is autistic and a vicar. I am constantly amazed by what she copes with and how she copes with it and how honest she is about what it costs her simply to be in the world, let alone do the role that she does.
However, I am not speaking from an own voice perspective and as I actually enjoy action songs I have no place on this thread.
I would, however, like to add my thanks to @HelenEva for the link to your blog.
I commend you @Nenya for your courage in coming forward.
I may start a new thread about physical actions in worship. We Orthodox have plenty, of course although 'action songs? Is outrage ...'
Something the Orthodox, RCs and Anglo-Catholics have in common with Pentecostals and charismatic is an emphasis on physical actions in worship.
The question I'd have to ask myself of course, is why I'm comfortable - or becoming increasingly comfortable- lighting candles, kissing icons bowing and so on, but would run a mile if an action song started anywhere near me.
I would, I hasten to add, defend to the uttermost Nenya's right to sing them, action them and enjoy them.
When I went to an ecumenical men's breakfast meeting I would not feel like holding my hands up in the air,waving them around or whispering loudly 'Thank you Jesus.'
I think that the evangelicals amongst us would have felt equally uncomfortable if anyone had asked them to make the sign of the cross.
One is comfortable with what one is comfortable with sounds like a truism.
I don't think it's much to do with familiarity though. I'm totally familiar with action songs, the Peace and (in the past) dancing, clapping, and sticking hands in the air and that had not engendered any comfort with those practices.
I understand from Google that a lay reader is: Does this person have regular responsibilities in the church? And do those responsibilities include making decisions (or helping make decisions) that affect the operation of the church? That is, do they have any power within the church?
Thanks.
Indeed. I've done all those things and eventually became comfortable and acclimatised to it all in a way my wife never did.
Now I'm doing stuff at the opposite end of the spectrum - crossing myself, bowing, venerating icons - and I'm gradually becoming acclimatised to that too.
I'm not as unselfconscious about it as cradle Orthodox Eastern Europeans, though.
Whilst I think all these things, whether dancing and clapping or ritualised liturgical grooves are generally an issue of socialisation, I can certainly see that many people aren't going to feel entirely comfortable or at ease with any of these practices.
I find, though, that in more formally liturgical settings nobody's trying to get you to conform or to do anything they aren't comfortable with.
Nobody's going to get someone in a half-Nelson and force them to kiss an icon.
Whereas, I'm afraid, in many 'enthusiastic' settings one's spiritual state can be judged or assessed according to how you behave in services/meetings.
ISTM many churches have "friendliness" as a stated goal and value: "We're a friendly church!" I have found that to be inversely true: the more a place trumpets itself as friendly, the less it actually is to newcomers.
Whether or not a worshipping congregation should hold this as a value, let alone for some a primary value, is a separate question. I suppose it's better than hostility, but neutrality is always an option. But I digress.
In the name of being friendly, some places officially post - or unofficially allow - the most extroverted chatty people to approach strangers and newcomers. From what you've said, I expect that this is not something you'd experience as friendly. Fair enough (in escalated versions of this scenario, I have silently wished I were carrying pepper spray, so I sympathize.)
So what would you experience as a worshipping place being friendly to you? Is there any way - not necessarily personal interaction, but also all the nonverbal communication modes of a place - that a worshipping community could express this in a way in which you could receive it? I'm just curious. You obviously have no obligation to answer, and I realize in this you speak only for yourself.
Agreed. I think many congregations confuse the two.
As an aside, Ian Lasch has another podcast that I enjoy very much—“All Things Rite and Musical,” which he started with the organist/choir director at the church where he used to be assistant rector. And that is the same church where our own Rossweisse was a member and sang in the choir. Small world.
"Yes" is sufficient.
I think it's essential that the church, of all places, seeks to have power spread among all kinds of groups to imbalance power. Because it's not supposed to be about power.
Not seeking to speak for KarlLB but from my autistic perspective friendliness would consist of people I could speak to if I wanted to, but who would stop after "hello" if I wasn't obviously wanting to continue the conversation. There should be people to ask where the loo is (and possession of a loo is the very baseline of Christian inclusion in my book) and generally things need to be readily understandable and predictable as regards what I'm supposed to do. Picking up unwritten instructions is the worst and the least likely to happen from an autistic perspective. So anything requiring spontaneity where you have to judge what is required without being told is horrible.
Written instructions of what to do if I don't feel I can speak to people, particularly relating to the service are very good. I think it's having the options. So if I can't cope with people, friendliness is making it possible for me to participate without peopling.
Like driving a manual car ( a dying art in Oz)
But way more complex.
Funny thing is, speaking as an organist (well, someone who has been but doesn't play now) I'd say the issue isn't exactly co-ordination per se. It's two different things:
1. Accuracy - being able to find the right notes on the pedalboard which you can't see while you're doing it
2. Independence - being able to do something completely different with your feet to what you're doing with your hands - a bit like the 'rub your abdomen while patting your head' thing.
As I have poor proprioception I found the first of these particularly difficult. I'm the sort of musician who guaranteed will make a mistake playing a piece of any length. It won't be the same mistake every time, and there will be a background level of mistakes regardless of how well practiced and well known the piece is. In sporting activities, people talk about learning from what happens when you try different things, but I can get wildly different results from doing what to me feels and looks like exactly the same thing. I just don't have the fine control. I drop things a lot too. I have vivid recollections of school PE masters teaching everyone else about getting the tennis ball into a particular part of the opponent's court while I was (and still am) unable to even connect with the ball at all more than one time in three. I have absolutely no control whatsoever over where it goes after I hit it, if I hit it at all. I'm actually too terrible at ball sports to even play them for enjoyment, because I can't actually do the basic actions of them, even badly.
But this may be the dyspraxia which is frequently co-morbid with autism.
BTW - and apropos of nothing - I have just decided I will stop using the abbreviation "ASD". I don't consider it to inherently be a disorder. It's a difference.
I just read a chapter entitled "Think Your Family is a Mess? Biblical Families R Us." from the book Eve Isn't Evil: Feminist Readings from the Bible to Upend our Assumptions, by Julie Faith Parker. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 2023.
Towards the last part of the chapter, she discusses the special care Jacob gave his son, Joseph. She wonders if Joseph may have had autism. She sees how Joseph was not suited for work in the fields. Joseph does have special abilities that will eventually save his family.
Ms Parker sees this because she has a son who has Asperger's Syndrome. She sees herself taking care of her son's special needs just like Jacob takes care of Joseph's needs as well.
A book she cites is Lavine, Samuel L. Was Yoseph on the Spectrum? Understanding Joseph in the Torah, Midrash and other Classical Jewish Sources. Jerusalem: Urim, 2018
This seems interesting.