Discipline

My son is 8 almost 9  . 

He  communicates very well, however we are finding he wants everything his way and if we try to explain to him or discipline  him,  he just doesn't get it and answers backs  to everything . 

It's like hes in charge and trying to tell us what to do . 

If we change the tone of our voice he thinks we are shouting .... he really struggles with school (mainstream) and when I ask what he doesn't like he says "there always shouting ) 

I always bring myself down thinking is it my parenting ,is he just spoilt or does he genuinely not get it , its so hard and when he gets into the answer back , meltdowns etc I feel judged from others that he just looks  naughty. 

I just feel  a bit stressed and at a loose end .

Parents
  • I fear the problem here is he may be asking for fundamental ethics, psychology or physics but not know how to ask the right question to get the help he needs to understand How a social structure works.

    Autistic children tend to be more in-tune with environmental factors rather than social. So, it can take a deeper level of knowledge to help explain the inner workings of social exchange to them when it comes to daily function in society. This may mean a bit more web searches or a trip to the library. 

    When I hear you say 'answer back', I think you might be implying that you're giving him a command/order which he hears as a request. Most likely he's trying to make sense of what is required assuming there is a negotiation. There can be times where we literally don't understand the difference between being asked vs being told. 

    I recall being 9 and my mother insisted I wear a dress to church. Being 9 and not having clarity or years of experience understanding that dresses weren't helpful for playing on the playground, I asked why. She had the best answer she could find something about dressing our best for G-d. Of course, being autistic this didn't make practical sense. I responded that G-d doesn't need me to dress up, He sees me every day. She thought I was being deliberately rebellious and no more discussion would be had. But had she simply told me that her reputation was on the line and what other women thought about how she dressed her children gave her crumbling anxiety, I would've respected that answer much more. But I'm not sure even she was aware of the psychology behind it. And sometimes that's the clarity we as young autistics need, because we're really trying to problem solve a riddle, and even if it's not something we'd like to do, matters of sad realistic life can help us understand how to help. 

    If you have some specifics, perhaps some of the autistic adults can help you better communicate or articulate your expectations and understand his limits. It's always good to never interrupt, but also to assign time frames to situations. If kids seem to have a difficulty with a task, do it with them to show them how you like a thing done until they push you away and assume command of that particular chore. And then being mindful about doing things one-thing-at-a-time can be crucial if not for measures of safety. 

    I think there's some good ideas here, but I wouldn't have understood the marble concept. It would just be one more example of a mother who didn't bother to understand me using an aesthetic to reinforce that distance between us unfortunately. 

    My father (they divorced when I was young), being most likely autistic, would never ask us to do overwhelming tasks and wouldn't interrupt, but he would say, "when you have a minute, I'd like you to come downstairs and do X". And if we didn't want to, he'd follow it up with sympathy and understanding and also that sometimes we have to do boring grown up tasks we don't like. When young, he'd always offer to help. And he'd let us do a thing on our time given a time frame. 

    An ideal thing to do is help him ask the right questions. Find out what he's having trouble with and help him express that better. Allow open discussion and you may find you won't have to discipline him. 

Reply
  • I fear the problem here is he may be asking for fundamental ethics, psychology or physics but not know how to ask the right question to get the help he needs to understand How a social structure works.

    Autistic children tend to be more in-tune with environmental factors rather than social. So, it can take a deeper level of knowledge to help explain the inner workings of social exchange to them when it comes to daily function in society. This may mean a bit more web searches or a trip to the library. 

    When I hear you say 'answer back', I think you might be implying that you're giving him a command/order which he hears as a request. Most likely he's trying to make sense of what is required assuming there is a negotiation. There can be times where we literally don't understand the difference between being asked vs being told. 

    I recall being 9 and my mother insisted I wear a dress to church. Being 9 and not having clarity or years of experience understanding that dresses weren't helpful for playing on the playground, I asked why. She had the best answer she could find something about dressing our best for G-d. Of course, being autistic this didn't make practical sense. I responded that G-d doesn't need me to dress up, He sees me every day. She thought I was being deliberately rebellious and no more discussion would be had. But had she simply told me that her reputation was on the line and what other women thought about how she dressed her children gave her crumbling anxiety, I would've respected that answer much more. But I'm not sure even she was aware of the psychology behind it. And sometimes that's the clarity we as young autistics need, because we're really trying to problem solve a riddle, and even if it's not something we'd like to do, matters of sad realistic life can help us understand how to help. 

    If you have some specifics, perhaps some of the autistic adults can help you better communicate or articulate your expectations and understand his limits. It's always good to never interrupt, but also to assign time frames to situations. If kids seem to have a difficulty with a task, do it with them to show them how you like a thing done until they push you away and assume command of that particular chore. And then being mindful about doing things one-thing-at-a-time can be crucial if not for measures of safety. 

    I think there's some good ideas here, but I wouldn't have understood the marble concept. It would just be one more example of a mother who didn't bother to understand me using an aesthetic to reinforce that distance between us unfortunately. 

    My father (they divorced when I was young), being most likely autistic, would never ask us to do overwhelming tasks and wouldn't interrupt, but he would say, "when you have a minute, I'd like you to come downstairs and do X". And if we didn't want to, he'd follow it up with sympathy and understanding and also that sometimes we have to do boring grown up tasks we don't like. When young, he'd always offer to help. And he'd let us do a thing on our time given a time frame. 

    An ideal thing to do is help him ask the right questions. Find out what he's having trouble with and help him express that better. Allow open discussion and you may find you won't have to discipline him. 

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