Letter of the week: September 29

In recognition of the importance of readers' contributions to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week, with a book prize courtesy of Longacre Press. This week's winner is Kim Maskill, of Dunedin, for her letter about shopping with her autistic son. She receives a copy of the recipe book Nadia's Kitchen (Random House), by Masterchef NZ winner Nadia Lim. The letter was published on Friday.

Supermarket survival
Have you seen us walking through the supermarket? My son is the one that you walk around.

Oops, he just knocked into you. He doesn't mean to, but you are on the tile that he needs to stand on.

In his world he only sees the tiles.

This is his survival in the supermarket.

What is yours?

Do you hear the lights buzzing? My son does.

Are the lights too bright for you? They are for my son.

Do you like people in your personal space in the supermarket? My son doesn't.

Can you smell the chemical and food smells? My son can.

How is your anxiety? My son's anxiety is very high. He has autism. His wiring is different than yours. So please excuse us as we walk the tiles to survive our supermarket journey. We are trying to cope in a world that is wired differently than my son.

Thank you for walking around my son.

Kim Maskill
Dunedin

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