autistic tendencie's - Autism Spectrum Message Board

sarparkyn · 08-23-2005, 03:14 AM

my son has autistic tenencies, and i need abit of advice. he has not actually been diagnosed yet. but he thinks people in games and books are real. he say,s he is having a party for them and get very nasty when we try and tell him they are not real people. and if we go along with his story he gets very upset when they dont turn up. we need to know how to cope with this, what do we do....help please

jeffreys mom · 08-23-2005, 04:03 AM

How old is your son? Are there other tendencies that lead you to believe autism? Imaginary friends are a typical part of development however it does sound to go beyond the normal relm if he is getting upset if they don't show up. If it's imagination that's a great thing encourage it, embrace it, but if you believe it's not "play based" then speak to his pediatrician. There must have been some other concerns to draw you to Autism as a possibility.

If it is really causing problems, limit the characters that he gets fixated on. My son for example has always loved Elmo. If I knew what affects it was going to have on him in the long term, Elmo would have been shut off completely when he was younger. My son seems to take on the role of his favorite characters. It has actually affected how he speaks. Half of his time speaking, he speaks in a high Elmo like voice. We are working hard to get this under control. Good Luck, I wish I could be of more help.

sarparkyn · 08-23-2005, 02:23 PM

hi, my son is 5yrs. he has tuberous sclerosis, so see's his specialist often, they are beginning to look into the autism. he doesnt play with kids, he has no friends, he hates loud noices. ive tried hiding his fav games like the sims, but he still goes on about them. he has a monopoly game now, and he is always going on now about having a monopoly party, so we have said he can have a party at the weekend, so we can get my neices over so it is like a real party. its hard knowing what to do for the best.

AggieMom · 08-24-2005, 03:32 PM

Jeffreys mom, I can totally relate to the Elmo thing! My 7yr old is a great "mimic" and a lot of his speech is echolalic. He's begining to "mix it up" with his own phrases to use it more appropriately, but he can still sound very much like his favorite characters. Elmo's Adventures in Grouch Land is his current favorite so we hear at lot of Elmo. When he was in Preschool he had a teacher that would talk to him in a high "singsong" kind of voice and she told me one day that she was going to have to remember not to do that because it was making my son speak in the same way and it wouldn't be too good for a young man to talk that way when he got older.

Since my son did not develope imaginary play until recently I'm not sure what to do about this problem, but it sounds as if he might be more "aspberger-ish" since he is able to communicate verbally. It makes sense to limit his exposure to things he seems to obsess about, but I'm sure we all know how hard it can be to deal with our kids on a daily basis and always do the "right thing". I don't really know if "going along with it" is a good idea, but maybe someone else will post that has had a similar problem. Good Luck.

Jana2676 · 08-24-2005, 11:06 PM

We have the Elmo thing going on at our house, but its with Scooby Doo! The past 2 years my daughter has called herself Princess Morgan Doo, and Scooby must go everywhere. She would tuck pieces of yarn, belts, etc into her pants as a tail. If she couldn't find a tail, you would have thought the world was ending! Thank goodness she is past that, it was a HUGE pain. She even uses her hands to open and close Scoobys mouth while she talks. So if she is mad, she will make Scoobys Mouth talk and say "Oh you Mommy, Scooby mad!" Last school year she attended a special ed pre-school and Scooby went for the first few months. By the end of the school year, she would set him on the front porch so he could wait for her to return home. Its gotten better, but sometimes its a huge pain. No one can touch Scooby or talk to him, she gets MAD! If I pick Scooby up, she runs over and grabs him. He is rarely out of her sight, he sits on the floor outside the tub, has his own pillow on the bed, etc. She had a fixation with Lava Girl this summer after she saw the movie, and Scooby was called Lava Scooby, lol. She talks in a high sing song type voice, and that is getting better too, but alot of times you cannot understand a word. Whew!