.

The lying question has come up on other threads recently. If you are constantly appearing in the wrong, the demoralising effect on self esteem means that anything, even a lie, avoids the damage it does.

But it is more complex. You say on one occasion he was stabbing his brother with a pen, till he drew blood, but denying he was doing anything wrong. Are other people stabbing him with a pen, or doing other bad things to him, for which he has no means of defence? - at school? in the neighbourhood between school and home? etc. Also if he has difficulty gauging other people's responses, he may be searching for a more meaningful reaction from his brother (and indeed some people on the autistic spectrum experiment with others to better understand what is happening to themselves.

He may be experiencing a lot of pain that you aren't aware of, such as through higher sensitivity or greater difficulty processing it. He may therefore think pain is normal, and not see inflicting pain on others in quite the same way as you might.

Honesty and "telling tales" seems to be a common element to autistic spectrum. It is one of the things that gets you into trouble with your peers (confession here, I told tales a lot - that is was, I guess still am, pedantic about the rules).

It is easy for non-autistic people to break the rules, because you can play off other people, by looks, facial expression, when you've gone to far, so it becomes a game. If you haven't got that social skill, you daren't break the rules. And why should others be free to break them if you aren't?  Also Theory of Mind issues, understanding the social background to rules, is a limitation.

The lying question has come up on other threads recently. If you are constantly appearing in the wrong, the demoralising effect on self esteem means that anything, even a lie, avoids the damage it does.

But it is more complex. You say on one occasion he was stabbing his brother with a pen, till he drew blood, but denying he was doing anything wrong. Are other people stabbing him with a pen, or doing other bad things to him, for which he has no means of defence? - at school? in the neighbourhood between school and home? etc. Also if he has difficulty gauging other people's responses, he may be searching for a more meaningful reaction from his brother (and indeed some people on the autistic spectrum experiment with others to better understand what is happening to themselves.

He may be experiencing a lot of pain that you aren't aware of, such as through higher sensitivity or greater difficulty processing it. He may therefore think pain is normal, and not see inflicting pain on others in quite the same way as you might.

Honesty and "telling tales" seems to be a common element to autistic spectrum. It is one of the things that gets you into trouble with your peers (confession here, I told tales a lot - that is was, I guess still am, pedantic about the rules).

It is easy for non-autistic people to break the rules, because you can play off other people, by looks, facial expression, when you've gone to far, so it becomes a game. If you haven't got that social skill, you daren't break the rules. And why should others be free to break them if you aren't?  Also Theory of Mind issues, understanding the social background to rules, is a limitation.