Autism and OCD

What is OCD? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a "neurological disorder that causes obsessive thoughts and behaviors and can greatly disrupt a person's life" This disorder is commons among autistic children, for instance: I been working with Joseph for two years, all Joseph wants to do is to make a list of all the TV channels there are. He would start writing them in a particular way which is always the same ( in columns), we have no idea how he is able to remember hundred of channels, the idea is that every time he has to do it in the same pattern if not he will throw a tantrum. Another thing he does is when he comes in the room every morning he will look around the classroom just to see if anything has been changed and if so he would fix it according to how for him it supposed to be. He does not responded very well to changes at all.
Joseph's behavior is a way to deal with stress, that how he copes with situations, he finds comfort by doing the repetitions of the same thing every time. Autistic children are unaware of the ocd instead they use it as a calming mechanism. Again it comes down to understanding how their minds work and how we are able to help them by providing other tools in which they can occupy their time.