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As you know, my six year old little guy has Aspergers. Part of this is compulsiveness, impulsiveness, and blurting out everything in your head. Otherwise, you might forget it!
Here's the problem. I also have a 17 mo. old baby girl, so my attention is divided. I really believe in trying to pay attention when my son is talking, as he is so important and smart, and I want him to know that what he says is important. However, this kid talks CONSTANTLY! It's a problem at school and among his friends. It's not that he thinks he's more important - it's the impulsiveness. We at home, his therapist and his teachers have been trying to work with him, and his classmates have made comments, which he internalizes, but still finds it hard to stop talking. We have tried to stress how it makes others feel and how they will tune him out. Even at home, if I turn away or say I want to hear something on TV, or if his dad and I are talking, he will just keep on going, as if nothing was said. He interrupts constantly. Yes, this is organic, and I think I had the same issues as a kid, and I know that kids with ADD have the same issue often. Have any of you dealt with this successfully? As both the therapist and teacher have said, he hasn't learned the skill of editing his thoughts and blurts yet. He repeats himself often. Plus, he often talks too loudly, which makes it worse. He will pace back and forth in the house making up "movies" with his Bionicles - he has always done this with his toys. It's cute, and I don't mind that so much; in fact, we got him a video camera and tape recorder for xmas, but this guy never shuts up!! He has a cute voice, but we all get sick of even our favorite singers after awhile of hearing them over and over!
By the way, he was like this before the baby came, too.
Answer:
Oh my goodness, he could be twins with my ds except mine is 8. The kids at school call him 'motor mouth' and 'chatty cathy'. He never stops talking until he falls asleep at the end of the night and then he wakes up before 7 talking again.
I feel torn too because my dd wants equal attention and it's hard when he never stops. People are just not interested anymore in the tiniest details of this thoughts. It was cute when he was 3. At 8, it's not cute anymore. We hoped he would grow out of it but he hasn't yet. He does the pacing while he talks too.
Recently since he has learned to type (he can't print), I've said, "I'd love to hear about you, your friends, true things going on in your life. But if it's fiction; if it's a story you are making up, then I'd like you to type it out and maybe one day you'll be a famous author." I'm not sure it's the right thing to say. I was so worried about hurting his feelings because he is such a sensitive little guy but so far (one week in) it seems to be working a bit.
He is losing the few friends he has because of this and it makes me sad. I've also been trying to teach him that he needs to ask questions of other people and wait and really listen to their answers. We role play this sometimes and again that helps a bit but not enough that it makes a significant difference. I hope we hear from others on the board who have met with more success and who can give us some advice.
Some days I think my heart is just going to break.
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My 7yo yaps constantly, pacing back and forth. I have to say, "Mark, stop so I can look at you and listen." His hands are gesturing etc... I just talked to dh last night because I have been noticing he has a stuttering thing going on too. It's been going on for some time, but I have been silently hoping it just disappears. It's like he can't formulate the thoughts in his head into a composed sentence before it comes out.... my heart sinks because he loses everyone's attention with his lack of "sense". It takes him twice as long to say something, and it comes out garbled and confused. He also has a thing where he repeats the last word or words in his sentence, almost under his breath. "And then we went to the store (the store)." "We had to buy milk and bread (and bread)."
arghhhhh these issues don't seem to be improving, and as he gets older people have less patience with him and I think then he has more pressure to hurry and 'spit it out.'
His handwriting is atrocious - he says he truly 'can't' do it. He writes, but he still has reversals and all the letters are made incorrectly. I've worked with him since he was 3, and all 3 of his teachers have worked extensively on this... he just can't get it.
However, he is reading at the 5th/6th grade level with 100% comprehension, and is a math whiz. <<<<banging my head on the wall>>>>
While I'm rambling, we were at a friends house yesterday where all this was glaringly obvious, and his behavior is so embarrassingly "spazzy"... like he's loud and impulsive and has these outbursts. Not angry or mean, just inappropriate! He has no sense of appropriate levels of excitement... does that make sense? Other kids laugh, but he'll be spinning around shrieking, where I have to say, "Ok, calm down." sigh.
Sorry to go off on a tangent. I have no other outlet for this!
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Kellytime, this is one reason my son is in speech therapy at school - the stuttering (not the classic kind, in fact I didn't even know this was called stuttering), and all the other things you mentioned. Their minds work faster than their mouths, if you can believe it. Aspergers children are usually incredibly smart (not saying that is your case, but the symptoms described today are some of my son's symptoms). I've used Melmed in Scottsdale for dx, but have been advised to try St. Joes downtown - I guess they have better staff and don't try to rope you in for more cash - my insurance paid for most things. Feel free to pm if you want.
Anyway, the speech therapy at school is really helping him - helping him not blurt out things and think of what he wants to say before speaking. However, his mind races, so he's afraid he'll forget what was so important in the moment. He also is in occupational therapy that has helped his handwriting. They have him strengthen his hands w/a stress ball. He uses little rubber grips on his pencils (Lakeshore Learning); we have some at home, too. I sat down with him and literally guided his hand in letter formation. After awhile, he was doing most of the movement, and that's helped a lot - not great, but greatly improved.
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I wish I had a suggestion. Mine talks all the time too. It is very draining. I can't talk on the phone or concentrate on anything.