unreachable reciting, what to do? | Autism PDD

It's always amazing to me to just read about the problems other people are having with their children. I'm still fairly new to this topic, and am still in the learining mode of it all. My pdd son does the same thing constantly, only no one ever told me it was not an unusual characteristic. He does this everywhere....at home, in stores, at school, etc.

I have never known how to handle this. He does his "reciting" in a very low voice (I guess he thinks no one can hear him that way)....plus he is older (11). If I bring it to his attention (which I have wondered if I should or not), he becomes very defensive and denies that he is doing that and immediatley "shuts" me and everything else out and goes right back to it. I don't know what to do to make him stop. It bothers me terribly and just like you, sallys, it is depressing and heart breaking. I know he wants so bad to "fit in" with his peers, but I wonder how in the world he can if he is doing this constantly.

I also would like to know from anyone else out there what (if anything) helps this. We need help with so many issues that is overwhelming to me and I don't know what to do or where to go for help with anything.

Sorry....to go on and on, but here I go. Just feeling a little desperate (to put it mildly). Hope to get some help or good suggestions.

Honestly...I'd like it if my ds would recite things at least. I just so rarely get to hear any real speech and anything would be something! :-)

But I do understand your concern. I get so frustrated w/ ds does pervasive ignoring! Sometimes I have to start clapping my hands in front of his face to get him to pay attention to me. I actually don't personally try to redirect ds when he stims though. Unless I need to for some important reason. If I need his attention for something like coming to eat, leaving the house for an appt, etc then I will interupt him. Otherwise, if he doesn't want to play w/ dd and I but wants to do his weird toy play in a corner by himself sometimes, I see no harm in it.

My ds also has on and off days. Today is a great "on" day so far. He did so great w/ ST this morn! He actually tried to repeat many words back to her and really was interacting great. She and I were both very surprised and pleased w/ him. Then there will be those days where all he seems to do is tantrum and stim and won't use words that he knows. Just how it goes. I think that can be true of children that are nt or not though sometimes.

My ds hasn't even been dx'd yet so I'm still in the dark not knowing if his behaviors are asd or not. I feel they are, but I haven't had my concerns confirmed by a specialist. Makes it hard sometimes. Other time I tell myself it doesn't really matter. Sept will take forever to come I think. I guess if he's not on the spectrum, he's just a somewhat anti social quirky child who's a very picky eater and a bit of a tantruming brat. And I just can't believe that. :-) Anyhow I went off on a tangent sorry I'm good at that lol. Just know you're not alone sally. Use the days when she's "on" to really work w/ her and interact. That seems to work because since I've been doing that, he has seemed to have more "on" days lately and less really bad "off" days.

Amber

Hi Shirley my son is only 5 and has asd we have been using redirection when he is doing some of these behaviors one of his that is frustrating is that he likes to have his hands in his pants in public and at school. So I spoke with his ABA teacher and she told me instead of telling him to STOP the behavior which tends to upset him and make him do it worse,to ignore the behavior and give him something else to do with his hands like therapy putty or magnets etc. anything that takes some concentration and keeps him focused. He tends to do his bad behaviors or annoying behaviors when he isn't engaged in anything. So maybe if you don't bring it to his attention and you just try to get him to do something else fun that he enjoys it would help?? Just some advice I know your son is alot older than mine so maybe someone who has a child his age could give some better advice. good luck

Nita

Hi Sallys.

My son can be in "Elmo's World" for hours too. He also runs back and forth through the living room. I'm sure you've already tried this, but if I break out the crayons (markers even better and paint even better than that) my ds will leave Elmo's World for a while. We also have these magnetic toys called "Magnetix" that will bring him back to earth (I don't have to worry about him putting any small parts in his mouth because he won't even put food in his mouth) or putting pennies in a piggybank usually works too.

Take care.

hello all, i have a son with ASD and he often recites things, mainly from kipper the dog. he goes off in his little world and reinacts the situation with his kipper dog toy and a guinea pig toy that he uses for the charather of pig !

so i completely understand what you mean ! I actually dont actually intervene as it is only for very short periods of time and he enjoys it, but if it ever did go on for a while all i could suggest is that i would try and distract as much as i could.

maybe with a fav toy, or a activity to do in the garden that she enjoys ?

hope that this helps you, take care xx xx xx

Well at least it sounds like she has no attention deficit disorder :) When my grandson starts in reciting I try to interject comment so at least it is a bit interactive. For example when he gets to the part where the man says " he should have stopped for that train" I say "and he should have looked both ways before crossing"...He seems to like that. But HOURS!!!! WOW! I wonder how it would work for instance when she is in "doraland" if you would pop in a Dora computer game or pull out dora colorforms or coloring books if she would change" channels"?

[QUOTE=sallys]

This is not unusual behavior in that she does the reciting/echolalia thing all the time but it is more typical that I can get her redirected and interacting or she'll do it for a while and then come back to interact a little. Today she's been reciting since we got home from ST and I cannot get her redirected (it's been all afternoon). She may look at me but then go right back to what she was reciting without responding. This has been going on for hours! I remember her neuro told me that I should try to engage her but if I can't don't worry too much but how can I not? Does anyone else have this problem and what do you do? It's so hard to just sit around while your dd is off in Doraland or whatever. It's depressing and disheartening really, but perhaps it helps her in some way??

Hi, I thought my child was the only one who did the reciting thing of disney movies and cartoon characters.

Unfortunately, I don't think I really have any advice for you because my son will stop if I talk to him or interrupt him. I have though often considered not letting him watch these shows because of the stimming (reciting). Do you think that might help? Of course you said she does this with books too? You aren't exactly going to stop reading to her, thats not logical.

I'm sorry I wasn't very helpful.

I don't know what to do when my dd goes into "recite"mode and won't come out of it. Most of today and yesterday, she has been doing lots of reciting (movies, songs, books) and has been off in her own world. If I try to interupt or redirect she does not respond.

This is not unusual behavior in that she does the reciting/echolalia thing all the time but it is more typical that I can get her redirected and interacting or she'll do it for a while and then come back to interact a little. Today she's been reciting since we got home from ST and I cannot get her redirected (it's been all afternoon). She may look at me but then go right back to what she was reciting without responding. This has been going on for hours! I remember her neuro told me that I should try to engage her but if I can't don't worry too much but how can I not? Does anyone else have this problem and what do you do? It's so hard to just sit around while your dd is off in Doraland or whatever. It's depressing and disheartening really, but perhaps it helps her in some way??

The only unusual thing I can think of that is going on is that this was the last week of ST for her while her ST goes on vacation for August so there was lots of prepping for that and talking about not seeing her for awhile and she's pretty attached to her ST (even gave her a hug today when we left). She had a really ON day Monday language and interaction wise, then Tues and today have been "off". It just seems to go that way - on and off. Any ideas????