Aspergers 6 year old

Hi Everyone 

We are currently going through the process of getting our son diagnosed with Aspergers.  Today my son came home from school with numerous holes in his top.  I asked him what they were from and he said he had pushed a pencil through his top. I asked why he did it and he said it’s because he was feeling ‘fiddly’ today.  This isn’t the first time, he doesn’t show much care or respect for his possessions and will often break things, without really seeming to think about it.  If we ask him to stop, his desire to destroy, pick, break thing overrides everything, even though he knows it’s wrong.

Firstly, is this quite a common trait?  Secondly, does anyone have any advice to help him when he’s feeling ‘fiddly’ at school and also how we can help him reduce the destructive behaviour?

This is all very new to us and we feel we are on a real learning curve, so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated. TIA

Parents
  • Hi - There's a good chance that he's stimming - he might be finding things that are so profoundly interesting and stimulating that he literally cannot help it.    They might provide a strange vibration or sound or just be very pleasant when he does it - like a mini science experiment that needs repeating until all of the data has been collected.  

    It's often an outlet for stress when the need to override things that are not fitting with his world - a common one at school is seeing bad behaviour in other kids and seeing them get away with it - it causes logic problems that can't be solved in the moment.

    I'm not sure you can directly stop what he's doing but you can redirect it by providing millions of other fascinating things for him to explore instead - sacrificial items that he can feel and explore to stimulate his mind.      Things like old clocks to dismantle, (brass cogs feel awesome between the fingers) old gadgets to take apart, torches with kaleidoscopes, different materials to test, cut, rip, poke holes in - canvas, rubber, cotton thin metal etc.      Let him find a place where his brain can do things it likes to balance the stress -  and he'll learn lots of things too.

  • If i didn't already know I was autistic, I would have realised it from the excitement I got reading this GrinningGrinningGrinning

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