Patty and her friend Marianne loved to play with their dolls. Patty would make a doll house out of a cardboard box and pretend it was a fancy house with decorations. Marianne liked to play with her babies. She wrapped them in thin brown papertowels.
"See, these are soft and my babies love them," she told me.
Patty ignored her friend. She sat her dolls in the cardboard box. The dolls wore old clothes but Patty didn't care. Marianne tried to dress Patty's dolls but Patty wouldn't have it.
When I observed Patty and Marianne they were seven. Their parents knew one another from work. Patty's mother was thrilled that someone would play with her daughter.
"Patty has autism and few friends. Her teachers don't get it. They think she is not capable."
Patty's mom was impatient. She knew Patty had abilities and talents. She was tired of the teachers telling her what Patty couldn't do.
The new friendship between Patty and Marianne thrilled her.
"They are really friends," the mother told me.
I watched the friends.
They knew how to play together and they did it so well.
Play scholars.
