Hey Shona after trying my best but unable to read everything as I am not a really good reader, As someone who has a positive diagnosis of high functional aspergers syndrome I was brought up to live around society not society living around me, meaning that I should try my damm hardest to work around my environment and build up a tolerance to the lights, sounds and smells around me without complaining, and I believe this has held me in good stead as I can now just zone them out as best as I can. But if I was to ever change my environment I would make an effort in incorporating creating time out rooms in buildings and also make the fashion stores turn down the volume of their music and make them more open planned as my god its horrendous shopping experience even for a NT. Other than my points mentioned I just believe that changing the environment is just not going to work in my honest opinion, I believe what has to happen is that we need to condition and train people with aspegers to learn to cope with changes in the landscape because I had to and my god it was brutal and very uncomfortable at first but I soon got used to it, I now LOVE to move house more often and I believe that has come down to been given a good dose of tough love and it may come across to parents as punishing or tantamount to torturing their children however I believe that you have just got to do it as if you dont its going to get a whole lot worse. Now I am not saying you have to throw them outside the door and push them around what I am saying is be coercing them out of their own comfort zone and condition them to the world around them as one day parents, carers and family may not be around to help and support them as in my case as I live with my mum in a single parent family and I have no other family to help and support me so its not about if but when I need to learn to cope with change to my environment on a regular basis which may I say is a scary prospect but I believe it just has to be done. So I hope this can help you understand a unique view as I know people with aspegers do not really like change all the much but I believe that with the right training not adapting people with AS can cope with environmental change better some easier than others may I note.
Regards
Global Revolutionary
