gift opening? | Autism PDD

Does anyone else's children have a problem with opening presents??  Luke will NOT open gifts.  He might slightly tear the wrapping with MUCH encouragement, but it's like he doesn't get the idea that gifts are to be opened ... that there's something exciting in them!  This is VERY frustrating to me be/c we want Luke to be excited and happy about receiving gifts, but he doesn't even get the point that they're a GOOD thing!  This seems very odd to me.

Luke has been stimming almost all day lately ... mostly running around the house and making a sound like a siren (lots of fun when the baby is sleeping), jumping around like a kangaroo, and spinning himself in circles.  I'm POSITIVE that he's hyperactive and am seriously thinking about getting him drugs (which heretofore I have been against -- at least for Luke).  I'm wondering if it's be/c of the new addition of the baby plus my parents leaving or if his autism is becoming worse as the weeks drag on.

Kellie

Kellie,

Adam at his 3rd birthday just started to comprehend that there is somehing in those packages for him.  He still by no means got as excited as my other two children did when they turned three but it was an improvement this past birthday.  He still gets overwhelmed with more than a few gifts so days before his birthday I split the gifts up and let him open a couple gifts a day and that also seemed to help as far as getting him prepped for the birthday party and we seen better results after we did that. 

Karrie

That's a good idea, Karrie!  For Luke's past birthday and last Christmas, being that he was an only child, he received tons of gifts (from my family and dh's family) and we all sat around taking pictures and encouraging him to be happy ... this drove Luke into a near panic and he cried and screamed throughout the day.  It's like he doesn't enjoy being the center of attention like that.  Or maybe he was just confused and didn't know what we expected of him.  Either way, I think we'll start giving gifts in small doses rather than all at once.

The reason this has come up is be/c people have been sending gifts to our new baby AND to Luke (I guess so he doesn't feel left out?).  It's so sweet of them, but I don't think Luke could care less!

You know part of his stimming activity, which gets to be a pain in the you know what, after awhile, could be his way of trying to calm himself down from all of the excitement.  Sometimes it does take these kids some time to try to redirect themselves.  Also I know with both of my kids they tend to do this stuff just to irritate the heck out of me sometimes.

Tammy

I was thinking  it could be his way of coping with everything that is going on around him, the grandparents coming to stay and then leaving, the new baby, also perhaps because you were upset that last few days, he could be picking up on that. it could also be  boredom, with the new baby, you have alot on your hands and not as much time to devote strictly to him( relax,  none of us do LOL ) it's amajor life change he's going thru.  as for the presents, Connor could still mostly care less but is slowly getting the idea( if i could just get him to stop giving out the unwrapped presents to the other guestsLOL) but it takes awhile and once WE open a gift that really peeks his interest, forget about the others, he'll just up and leave with the one he just opened.  it takes time but it will come.Owen doens't get the gift opening concept either. his 2nd birthday was in March, and he tore a little bit of one present, and that was it. At Christmas at home with us, he didn't open a thing. I opened everything, and he liked all his gifts.

Kellie....

Take heart.... Zach doesn't get the gift opening thing either... and He will be 3 at the end of this month.... He gets it somewhat... but basically opens ONE gift and then he's finished.   Also.... Zach's been stimming like crazy also since Jaydin's been born.  He GALLOPS through the house hand flapping all over the place... GRRRRRRRRRRR annoys the HECK outta me.... of course I don't tell Zach that, I just try to redirect Him after one or two laps of the house... yes the Galloping is new... He used to just run, with lil' to no hand flapping.... now he's flappin all over the place.... not to mention the LOUD babbling which yes is ohhh so fun when the baby is sleeping.  But I figure Jaydin will just have to learn to deal... *laughs* poor girl.... I do tell Zach to be quiet though.   The baby is a MAJOR life changing event.   Zach is having a hard time dealing with all of this.....  I can tell He LOVES his baby sister... He's very protective and always looking over her.... but he is VERY mad at me because I was gone in the hospitol for 3 days.  All of this is going to take adjustment and time and patience.... I had a crazy hormonal day today and yelled at my husband who has been wonderful.... so I understand.

Hi Kellie,

  My son Quinn who is 8 now and dx pdd-nos with autistic features, didn't seem interested in opening his own gifts until he was about 4 or 5....before he really got it........now he loves opening gifts.

God Bless you & your Families & keep you all safe!

LINDA...aka Tony'sMom...aka MWN64 

My 8 yr. old does'nt get the opening of gifts either, When we do it we made sure it wasn't a barney gift cuz if it was he would stop and go play with it and not care about the other gifts. He still to this day don't care about the gifts !!Lou also didn't get gift opening either unitl he realized there was stuff in the
paper for him and even after that he still has some issues. He still needs
encouragement to open gifts at all as he'll pull off a corner and find
something else interesting. But at least he doesn't cry at them anymore and
is excited he's getting a gift. However the minute he opens something he
likes he's done with opening gifts. So I've learned to wait until he's done
exploring the item and hope he's willing to open more gifts or to be really
quick with the next gift.
Copyright Autism-PDD.net