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Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:40 am
by struggling
MY DS is a 12 year old special child, attenting special school. Over the past few months, she has started gesturing and talking to herself silently. I found out that the gesturing was actually movements to a song ( whew!), but now she has continued the habit of talking to herself - in conversation with imaginary friends - amost every moment of the day and night! And the talking is getting louder, that sometimes I can hear her 'conversations'.
It takes a lot to get back her attention to talk to anyone in the family.
I even have to shout at her and sometimes hold her tight / shake her to ask her to look at me / focus on me.
It has already started to interrupt her daily life eg. too engrossed to eat her food, dreaming when she in school, etc.
Anyone else experienced this and know what to do? I am panicking already!!!
Re: Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:24 am
by slmkhoo
My 16yo daughter has Asperger's, and she has always liked talking to herself. Once we noticed it, around 4-5yo, we have constantly been reminding her not to do it. We realise that she has a very rich thought life and likes to tell herself stories which she makes up in her head. By reminding her every time we see it, and telling her that other people will think she's crazy, we seem to have convinced her that she shouldn't do it, and she mostly keeps it under control. She also likes to smile to herself, and we know that she isn't listening to anyone else around her. Other than nagging and telling her that no-one will dare come near her, I don't have any other solution. Her school friends are too nice to her to tease her as she is in a small school overseas, but I reckon she will get called names and teased when she goes to Singapore school next year. I think it will be good for her!
Re: Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:37 pm
by struggling
Thanks for your sharing.. So, she's still doing it too? We've been telling her that ' it's not normal' and threatening to take her to the doctor, which makes her stop temporarily, but then she starts again within 5 minutes... I'm at my wits end here...!
I'll be taking her to see her specialist for her condition soon, to check if it's anything to do with her medication or an extended symptom of her condition - IVA.
I wonder if its a lack of mental stimulation and friends that's causing her to 'make up' her own friends...?
Anyone know where they teach art for special kids at a reasonable price?
Re: Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:30 pm
by slmkhoo
Yes, she still does it, but not very much, so other than reminding her when we see it, we aren't doing anything. Does your daughter do it in school, and do her teachers stop her? It may help if they also remind her not to when they see her do it.
Re: Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:32 pm
by struggling
Yes she does it in school too. Her teacher just spoke to me last week to say that she also noticed it, and her attention spam has dropped to .. About one to three minutes...
Plus some of her actions seem ' involuntary' like slight movements of her head.
Is this a manifestation of something ?
How did you get your daughter to do less of all this?
Re: Talking to herself! Help!
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:56 am
by slmkhoo
struggling wrote:Yes she does it in school too. Her teacher just spoke to me last week to say that she also noticed it, and her attention spam has dropped to .. About one to three minutes...
Plus some of her actions seem ' involuntary' like slight movements of her head.
Is this a manifestation of something ?
How did you get your daughter to do less of all this?
We just kept telling her not to - ie.nagging! Also, we told her how other people woul view her. Since she has Asperger's, she doesn't really care what others think about her, unfortunately. It's been an on-going process all her life - we will notice some action or behaviour that is not desirable, then we nag until she stops or at least it's reduced to a reasonable extent, then there will be another one... We realised that many such things happen when she is left in her own world too much, so we make an effort to get her to join us for games, make her talk to us etc. But it's very tiring. She is mostly homeschooled at the moment but has a younger sister who will also engage her. We try not to let her be in her own world more than an hour or so at a time before we 'disturb' her and make her interact with us, even if I just go and chat with her for a while.