I love the Jane Goodall analogy--and I've seen it frequently ascribed to girls/women on the autism spectrum. Cookie, does your son show an interest in other people's social behaviors? Mine doesn't, really. He is pretty black and white in his thinking. I imagine in a similar assignment, we would have similar results. .....
Hmmmm, sometimes he mentions people's social behavior because he can't understand why the heck they would do that. He can't imagine what they were thinking that would lead to that behavior. But not on a constant mode, just when some behavior is confusing to him.
And that assignment would have flustered my son and we would have to help him break it down into manageable chunks...I think after completing one person with help then he would be fine with the second through sixth. He can do stuff like this as long as he is guided through an example and as long as he doesn't panic. Once the anxiety hits defcon 2 or 1, forget it. That is when we have to do a reset, get extended time, conference or email with the teacher.
The anxiety goes so much hand in hand with the lack of theory of mind/social deficits/black and white thinking. And think about it if you suddenly were hit on the head and had brain damage that basically made you autistic, the world would be a scarey place and you would be anxious.
