"A Color of His Own"
Dr. Gonzales is a doctoral-level behavior analyst with 14 years of experience and currently serves as the Chief Clinical Officer of Alamo Behavior Analysis. She has early-career experience in general education, holding an MAT in early childhood education from Trinity University (class of 2008), along with an M.Ed in Special... more
I read my daughters a book last called “A Color of His Own” that made me think of autistic masking and autistic friendships.
First of all, this is a lovely book for all children by a genius author/illustrator named Leo Lionni whom I was introduced to in my Master of Arts in Teaching program (early childhood through 4th grade).
I think, however, that it would be highly meaningful for neurodivergent children.
Secondly, I am neurodivergent (Bipolar 1) but allistic. While I don’t fully understand autistic masking, I have had to mask many, many times.
“Heather, go stop at McDonald’s and wash your face, they’ll know you’ve been crying and they’ll know you’re depressed and they won’t want to work with you.”
“Am I talking too fast? Do they think I’m passionate? Does this come off as manic? Slow down.”
You get the picture.
Anyway, the pages of the story are posted below.
For my visually impaired colleagues, here’s the gist:
A chameleon realizes all other creatures have their own colors.
He is sad that he changes colors based on what he is standing on.
He is sad that he is not one color and has to always change to his environment.
He meets an older and wiser chameleon that tells him he will never have a color of his own, but if they stay together, they will always be the same color together, no matter where they are.
Their friendship makes them both happy and the younger chameleon no longer worries about always having to change his colors.
I try not to comment on the autistic experience being allistic, but I was wondering if this resonates with any of my autistic colleagues.
