Help - repetitive play

Hello, my boy is a beautiful six year old with high functioning autism. He's amazing at maths and very articulate with words but I am struggling (among other things) with his attention and the way he plays. He doesn't 'do' imaginative play at all. His favourite thing to do is to swing something around, anything on a rope, like an ID badge on a neck tie, or a toy crane on a rope (from Lego). He will swing it round and round all day long, making shooting noises and machine gun noises and I mean constantly! I have tried sitting down with him and doing imaginative play with playmobil and mario etc to show him how but no interest at all-his attention span is about 3 minutes and then He does his swinging/shooting for hours. It's a problem at school too as he often hits people with his swinging games but has no realisation of other people's feelings. It's so hard as he is so clever in many other ways. What can I do? Or do I just accept that this is my little boy?

Parents
  • This is typical stimming behaviour and ticks many sensory boxes for some autistic people. If it's something he has to do, the trick is finding something to replace it that provides an equally satisfying sensory experience. You could always try disco lights or those room projectors to see if it's a visual thing he likes or he could just like the motion/noise created by the swinging. 

    Hopefully, someone else may have a similar experience to share. 

    regards, Lee

Reply
  • This is typical stimming behaviour and ticks many sensory boxes for some autistic people. If it's something he has to do, the trick is finding something to replace it that provides an equally satisfying sensory experience. You could always try disco lights or those room projectors to see if it's a visual thing he likes or he could just like the motion/noise created by the swinging. 

    Hopefully, someone else may have a similar experience to share. 

    regards, Lee

Children
  • Thank you for your reply. I have (I feel) moderate experience of autism through my profession but when it comes to my own child I seem blind. I'm aware of stimming but viewed it as like flapping or tapping, I didn't see this so thank you for identifying it and now I can deal with it/accept it for what it is