Obsessive Self-stimulating Behavoir and Non-listening

[Guest guest]

I'm asking for help from the list. My daughter is nine, non-verbal and diagnosed with autism. She is almost always happy, outgoing, and good-natured. While she does not use words at all, she is effective at communicating her needs through gestures, limited sign language, and non-verbal vocalizations. She is also learning to communicate with her iPad at the small, specialized private school she attends.

We spend most of our time together outside, visiting the beach, playgrounds, horse riding, pools, etc. and she is generally well behaved and even plays well with typical children if they understand who she is.

The problem is when we are inside our apartment for any length of time, which is usually only during rare bad weather or before bedtime. My daughter gets obsessed with self-stimulating behavoir that is undesirable including pouring water on the floor, repeatedly opening and shutting refrigerator door, pouring ketchup on the floor, you get the idea. When I tell her to stop, she laughs and keeps doing it. If I unfortunately lose my temper and yell at her, which I hate to do, it makes no difference to her. I get upset, she ignores me. She is more than happy to cooperate in helping to clean up her mess after she makes one, but she will persist in repeating the behavior until she grows tired of it.

Time out doesn't work because she won't stay in a chair more than a few seconds. Sometimes I can re-direct her to another, more acceptable activity but this is rare once she gets obsessed with what it is she really wants to do. Any suggestions?

[Guest guest]

Ed, We went through a period where it seemed nothing interested my son and being at home was torture because I didn't know what to do with him and he did some of the same things ( spilling a non favorite I can tell you). A behavioral therapist suggested a couple of things that helped. I don't know how they will work for you but can't hurt to try. She said to put 3 activities out on the table and just leave them there for a bit and see if he would gravitate to one. Worked more often than I expected. Something I hadn't thought to try before that also worked was giving him very simple chores. Sometimes things that don't necessarily need to be done but will keep him busy. I would take all of his socks out of his draw, put them on the livingroom table and he would put them back. I taught him to wipe and dry the kitchen table, take clothes out of the dryer and put them in the laundry basket. All activitiies followed by praise or some kind of positive reinforcement.We also kept a visual schedule of what we would do at home so that he had some structure and knew what would be coming next. Good luck.

I'm asking for help from the list. My daughter is nine, non-verbal and diagnosed with autism. She is almost always happy, outgoing, and good-natured. While she does not use words at all, she is effective at communicating her needs through gestures, limited sign language, and non-verbal vocalizations. She is also learning to communicate with her iPad at the small, specialized private school she attends.

We spend most of our time together outside, visiting the beach, playgrounds, horse riding, pools, etc. and she is generally well behaved and even plays well with typical children if they understand who she is.

The problem is when we are inside our apartment for any length of time, which is usually only during rare bad weather or before bedtime. My daughter gets obsessed with self-stimulating behavoir that is undesirable including pouring water on the floor, repeatedly opening and shutting refrigerator door, pouring ketchup on the floor, you get the idea. When I tell her to stop, she laughs and keeps doing it. If I unfortunately lose my temper and yell at her, which I hate to do, it makes no difference to her. I get upset, she ignores me. She is more than happy to cooperate in helping to clean up her mess after she makes one, but she will persist in repeating the behavior until she grows tired of it.

Time out doesn't work because she won't stay in a chair more than a few seconds. Sometimes I can re-direct her to another, more acceptable activity but this is rare once she gets obsessed with what it is she really wants to do. Any suggestions?

[Guest guest]

My son was obsessed with the fridge too and he would open and close it so hard that he broke all of the shelves in the door. I bought a fridge guard from one step ahead and that stopped that. He is sometimes fascinated by my lazy susan cabinent, but nothing to the extent of the fridge. The light coming on and off in the fridge was very stimulating for him. The key for my son is keeping him busy at all times. If there is any down time he finds something to get into.

Obsessive Self-stimulating Behavoir and Non-listening

I'm asking for help from the list. My daughter is nine, non-verbal and diagnosed with autism. She is almost always happy, outgoing, and good-natured. While she does not use words at all, she is effective at communicating her needs through gestures, limited sign language, and non-verbal vocalizations. She is also learning to communicate with her iPad at the small, specialized private school she attends.

We spend most of our time together outside, visiting the beach, playgrounds, horse riding, pools, etc. and she is generally well behaved and even plays well with typical children if they understand who she is.

The problem is when we are inside our apartment for any length of time, which is usually only during rare bad weather or before bedtime. My daughter gets obsessed with self-stimulating behavoir that is undesirable including pouring water on the floor, repeatedly opening and shutting refrigerator door, pouring ketchup on the floor, you get the idea. When I tell her to stop, she laughs and keeps doing it. If I unfortunately lose my temper and yell at her, which I hate to do, it makes no difference to her. I get upset, she ignores me. She is more than happy to cooperate in helping to clean up her mess after she makes one, but she will persist in repeating the behavior until she grows tired of it.

Time out doesn't work because she won't stay in a chair more than a few seconds. Sometimes I can re-direct her to another, more acceptable activity but this is rare once she gets obsessed with what it is she really wants to do. Any suggestions?

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! These are great ideas! Thanks for sharing this info with this listserve! I am going to try this with my 7 year old son.

Bart Barta

To: sList Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2011 4:07:09 PMSubject: Re: Obsessive Self-stimulating Behavoir and Non-listening

Ed, We went through a period where it seemed nothing interested my son and being at home was torture because I didn't know what to do with him and he did some of the same things ( spilling a non favorite I can tell you). A behavioral therapist suggested a couple of things that helped. I don't know how they will work for you but can't hurt to try.

She said to put 3 activities out on the table and just leave them there for a bit and see if he would gravitate to one. Worked more often than I expected. Something I hadn't thought to try before that also worked was giving him very simple chores. Sometimes things that don't necessarily need to be done but will keep him busy. I would take all of his socks out of his draw, put them on the livingroom table and he would put them back. I taught him to wipe and dry the kitchen table, take clothes out of the dryer and put them in the laundry basket. All activitiies followed by praise or some kind of positive reinforcement.

We also kept a visual schedule of what we would do at home so that he had some structure and knew what would be coming next. Good luck.

I'm asking for help from the list. My daughter is nine, non-verbal and diagnosed with autism. She is almost always happy, outgoing, and good-natured. While she does not use words at all, she is effective at communicating her needs through gestures, limited sign language, and non-verbal vocalizations. She is also learning to communicate with her iPad at the small, specialized private school she attends.

We spend most of our time together outside, visiting the beach, playgrounds, horse riding, pools, etc. and she is generally well behaved and even plays well with typical children if they understand who she is.

The problem is when we are inside our apartment for any length of time, which is usually only during rare bad weather or before bedtime. My daughter gets obsessed with self-stimulating behavoir that is undesirable including pouring water on the floor, repeatedly opening and shutting refrigerator door, pouring ketchup on the floor, you get the idea. When I tell her to stop, she laughs and keeps doing it. If I unfortunately lose my temper and yell at her, which I hate to do, it makes no difference to her. I get upset, she ignores me. She is more than happy to cooperate in helping to clean up her mess after she makes one, but she will persist in repeating the behavior until she grows tired of it.

Time out doesn't work because she won't stay in a chair more than a few seconds. Sometimes I can re-direct her to another, more acceptable activity but this is rare once she gets obsessed with what it is she really wants to do. Any suggestions?