Target And Toys "R" Us Reach Out To The Autistic Community
Something good has come out of 2016. It took a while, but with the dawn of the holiday season, instead of corporate greed, Toys "R" Us and Target demonstrated something a little different this year. In certain stores in the UK and US, Target and Toys "R" Us have set up specific hours reserved for families with autistic children to engage in quiet Holiday shopping. These stores are also equipped with break areas for the children, loaded with sensory toys designed to help kids with autism who get too overwhelmed while in the store. Even from an objective standpoint, this is absolutely beautiful.
This kind of compassion and understanding is such an amazing leap of progress for all members of the autistic community. It shows a new and long-awaited public realization that children with autism are not undisciplined, wild children reflecting the failings of their parents. It shows that people are starting to understand that autism is a diagnosis reflecting real, physical differences in brains of people with and without autism and that these neural differences mean that people have different needs. All it means is that their brains work in different ways. And the beautiful thing is, these stores are not penalizing people for being different. They are catering to those needs in a way that few people ever would.
Reading about how these stores provided weighted blankets and quiet shopping hours, I could not stop smiling. Even at a high functioning level, children with autism live in a world adapted for the sensations of the majority, and to them, this world can range from mildly unpleasant to intolerable. Simply turning off the music and providing weighted blankets (a personal favorite of my younger brother’s), is a massive leap toward creating more intolerable atmospheres.
My youngest brother is autistic and it used to be near impossible to take him out in public. Outings were extremely stressful for him and the family, almost always ending in catastrophic meltdowns, my brother making a scene big enough to attract the attention of everyone in viewing or hearing distance. The desultory looks and disgusted glares never escaped my notice and certainly not my mother's. I can only imagine just how disheartening this is for parents, trying their best to integrate their children into a world that oftentimes doesn't even try to understand, only to be met by others judging their parenting.
As this article points out, the inability to actually have successful public outings, even a short trip to Target, hinders the child’s social development. Target’s and Toys "R" Us’ changes show a concern for the development and comfort of all their consumers. Especially in conjunction with Target's gender neutral bathrooms, this is an amazing win for minorities that are often overlooked because of their convergence from the "norm."
Argue that these are marketing stunts if you will, but the amount of good that this has brought so many people already is immeasurable. For parents and caretakers, simply being able to go out and shop with their child for gifts and have an enjoyable time unhampered by judgment and surrounded by understanding is a small gift many had given up on.
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