Among other things: Rocking is body language. Rocking is emotions.
There is a slow happy!rock. And an anxiety!rock. And anger. And affection. And any number of others. And they are not the same.
And it is possible to look and understand. It is possible to learn how to read rocking, to know what it’s showing.
This is body language. Meaning shown on a body.
They tell us that we do not have body language, that we have a flat affect. And then they try to make this true; they try to flatten us and stop us from moving and showing emotional body language.
But we aren’t flat. We have body language. And rocking is part of it. (And any number of other movements. Not just rocking. But rocking is on my mind.)
I can’t tell you how to read it. Not much. Not yet. I’m trying to figure out some of the words for that. It is hard to describe body language in words, even body language that is socially valued enough that a lot of people have tried. All the more so this.
What I can tell you is that autistic movement is meaningful. Not mysterious. Not ethereal. Not in-another-world. Meaningful, present, and possible to understand.
(Not simple. Communication between people is never simple, and never formulaic. Meaningful. Complicated.)
Keep that in mind. The first step to understanding is knowing that there is something to understand.