parenting

so i often find myself reading articles about autism. every now and then i worry that my fascination is an omen that i'll wind up being the parent to an autistic child. the odds seem pretty high - i'm no mathematician but the fact that i read about it a lot makes my odds high in my head. anyway, i was reading an article today - it was an old one from the ny times that i printed off and am finally getting around to. a quote in there fascinated me in terms of parenting in general.

"i treat everything the child does as having a reason - to feel calmer, for example, or to feel excited," dr. greenspan told me. "often the parents have notions of what the child should be doing, so they're trying to control the child rather than build on the child's natural interests."

so what do you think of that quote? good stuff, no? i want to be the sort of parent/teacher/adult that doesn't control but insteads facilitates. (that was the best word i could come up with for what it sounds like he's describing.)