hand flapping and self-talk

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping that someone might have some insight for me...

I have an 8 yo son(PDD-NOS) who is going into 2nd grade with support.

He has been pretty successful in school, but these 2 behaviors are

surfacing as the biggest detriments to his relationships.

He does not walk around flapping, but with certain visual stimulus,

he flaps like a bird and sometimes even jumps up and down. The

trouble is that they use the computer in the classroom and some of

the activities popular for his age group are video games and

movies. He will stand there and flap while his friends play the

computer or video games. Worse yet, at arcades or anywhere there is

a video game, he will get right next to the person playing and

flap. I understand that hand flapping is a stereotypic behavior

symptomatic of autism, but I am needing/wanting some more insight

into this. What is this eye-hand connection? He doesn't flap to

sounds or textures...and it isn't to all visual stimulus. I guess

that is the why part of the question. Now, what to do about this?

As he has gotten older, he is able to control it better. If I say

hands down or just move one of his hands down, he will say " Oh,

sorry mommy " and put his hands down for maybe 10-15 seconds, and

then he is back at it again. Even when he stops flapping, his body

is shaking or rocking. It's like he is going to explode because he

has to get it out. My next attempt at intervention was to put a full

length mirror next to the tv while my husband played the Playstation

and see if we can give him more of an awareness of when he is

flapping. Just my newest thought on it. Any input is welcomed.

I thought I would throw in the self-talk since I have your

attention. ) He will go into these monologues with sounds of

explosions and dialogue that are probably from one of his favorite

movies. He does this when he is bored, wants to avoid doing work,

or sometimes it seems just for fun. The only thing that seems to

stop it is if we start talking about something that is really

reinforcing to him, i.e. So, what do you want for Christmas? or if

something reinforcing is introduced. Of course, we don't like to do

that because we don't want to reinforce this behavior. Any input

here? This is primarily a problem at school and when he prefers to

do this than play with friends.

I couldn't sleep so here I am typing, so if any of this doesn't make

sense, I will be glad to clarify. Feel free to email me personally

or post to the list.

Thanks so much!

Vieven