Unfortunately, for some children, “gray” thinking doesn’t develop readily. These kids sometimes end up with diagnoses on the autism spectrum. But regardless of diagnosis they’re best thought of as black-and-white thinkers living in a gray world. They have significant difficulty approaching the world in a flexible, adaptable way and become extremely frustrated when events don’t proceed in the manner they had anticipated. More specifically, these children have a strong preference for predictability and routines, and struggle when events are unpredictable, uncertain, or ambiguous.
