stims & ecolalia | Autism PDD

Thanku so much everyone! And yes thanks norwaymom those are very good sites! He seems to do both and lots and lots of singing all the time (not communicating or anything) he speaks pretty well with people so wasnt sure if they do it sometimes just cause and not communicating i guess like a stim maybe? He doesnt pinch himself so much anymore but the doing it in public was what really freaked me out but its not like he did aaall the time just that time was really embarrasing. Thank u so much everyone!Thanks to Norwaymom forposting the link about echolia. I had seen that website noted somewhere else, but had never checked it out. It is really good. I found the articles re:echolalia very informative. Thanks so much.

My son loves watching tv/movies and hes pretty much always repeated parts of it, not the whole movie but parts here and there from it or commercials or whatevr. He talks well and i always thought it was his love of tv that he did that, is that ecolalia or no cuz he can talk good? Just wondering.

Also there was a point of time like a few monthes ago that my son would constantly pinch his u know what! Hed do it all the time when watching tv, playing toys etc. Id tell him not to do that when people are around or me and hed get mad and cry sometimes. He actually did it while i was shopping one time and i quietly told him only do that at home by himself (i dont know what to say ok!) anywayz he just screamed out NO I WANT TO! It was really embarrasing. I told my husband and he seemed to think it was hilarious. But is that just him just exploring or was he using that as kind of a stim at the time. Because it was excessive and it looked like it hurt (to an extent anyway!) and he didnt stim as much as he usally did at the time. He doesnt do it excessively anymore but at that point in time it was worrying me alot! Just something i was wondering abot too if stims arnt always just u know rocking ur head or flapping ur hands.

My son constantly repeats from movies, TV, I think it's delayed ecolalia because it's constant and he does it long after he has watch something, I don't know how he can remember the dialoge for that long of a time. Pinching can be a stim or a sensory issue if you ask me. If they cannot control it, in public or not, I would consider it a stim or a sensory issue, although boys love to touch their you know whats. How old is your son? My is 12 and we are still dealing with these issues. Thanks Loki! My son just made 4 lil while ago and he does like doing that and im not sure how to handle stuff like that! I was just thinking of the connection of it being a stim for him at that time. If it gets excessive what do u do? Maybe u could give me tips how to handle that situation? Also are u from hawaii? 143hayden39282.5177430556Hi Nikki, Try to give him something else to do with his hands, when he is doing this, maybe a squishy ball to play with, try to keep his hands busy with something else. also keep telling him to only do this alone in his room. We tell our son if he must touch it, he will have to go to his room, not acceptable in public. I don't know how much your son understands so you will have to decide if he will understand what you are telling him. When he was younger we would take his hands out of his pants and tell him hands by your side. I am not from Hawaii, but have been to Maui and thought it was beautiful, and would love to go back someday. I am in Indiana. Hopefully some more people will have ideas. And if you think it is a sensory issue a good OT might be able to help.

It sounds like delayed echolalia to me, too. If it seems like he's using it to communicate with you and not just for entertaining himself, you might want to take a look at this list of possible functions echolalia can have:

http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/echolaliafacts.msnw

If you want to learn more about sensory issues and stims, here are two quick and easy sources.

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processin g-disorder-checklist.html - for identifying sensory symptoms

http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/archive/mannerism.html #Chart - for identifying self-stimulating behaviors ("stims") under various sensory categories

As far as touching himself goes, this is common for both preschool boys and girls, and it sounds like you've done a fine job calmly re-directing him and explaining that it's private. I do wonder if a sudden increase in that behavior sometimes indicates a physical problem like a bladder infection -- best to keep an eye out.

Good luck with everything.

Boys do love their body parts, and they are curious about others' as well. Yep, if your son is not in daycare or preschool, you are missing the joy of having the teacher tell you thta your cherub is trying to find out if girls are different from boys.

At just shy 9, Ben still manifests delayed ecolalia. He may start to giggle about something totally remote from the current setting. That will go over really well in middle school.

He is learning that there are things that most people don't want to see or hear us do. He doesn't understand why they have a problem with these things, just that they do. So he works on learning his 'scripts' for socially acceptable behavior. The behaviors are not good or bad, just acceptable or not.

The TV thing is echolalia for sure, really common. But you can use it to bring him out of his daydreaming and engage with you!

If he is yakking about Lightening McQueen running from the giant combine (funny, I think you can imagine the scene!) say OH NO! Who's going to help him? Will it be Chick Hicks? Chick! Can you help Lightening?

Your son will think you've gone daft because Chick is the bad guy and does NOT appear in this scene. So you then say, darn. Who is it that helps Lightening run away? Gosh, somebody who can drive backwards....hmmm. Is it Mack? No? hmmm.

Hope this makes sense. You take the perseveration, join it, then twist it so they turn around and correct you, then take off with it from there. Use it as an icebreaker.

As for his touching thing, no worries. It'll pass. Don't make a big deal about it! Consider it the equivalent of your kid digging wax out of his ears, and mildly redirect him. I wouldn't make him put his hands to his sides...turns this into a potential battleground.

Hey Loki, Sorry im originally from oahu and that name is a very common hawaiian name there. Ive tried telling him that and all he does is get upset and start sucking his fingers. I will try the putting his arms to his side maybe hell get the idea next time. Thank u so much![QUOTE=143hayden]

[/QUOTE]

I think the pinching his little man parts is just part of being a boy. Every little boy I have babysat as a teen did that, it was usually a short phase. My DS and my friends little boys have done that too. My DS was about 4 1/2 when he started and did that on and off for a few months. My DH thought it was funny too. We had to remind DS not to do that and he just stopped after a few months.

As for the repeating of tv, my DD is 7 1/2 and she still does that. Its not as bad as it was when she was 3-5 years old.