Self stimulatory behaviors, obsession and narrow interest are cornerstone behaviors of Nick's autism that began before his diagnosis. I hoped with intervention he would outgrow these, still they are in full effect today. This behavior has been described in many words that mean the same thing for us, including;
- Repetitive
- Repeating
- Rumination
- Obsessing
- Scripting
- Perseveration
- Over stimulation
- Stemming
- Echolalic
- Self Stimulatory Behavior
- Limited/Narrow Interest
Over the years Nicks
need to put his favorite topic's on auto repeat by any means possible
(internally or externally) has been given lot's of names but it has never
changed! Nick is addicted to repetition. Anything Nick likes, he likes a
lot. Anything he likes he wants to have repeated in shotgun style; rapid, bold
with no holds barred. Nick will find any way to get a thing to repeat, from
lists, to baby video's, to end credits, toy sounds, to words, one phrase in a
song, to questions anything he can repeat. Nick wants to live in a loop
where he can hear or see the same thing over and over. He is an addict for
repetition, he loves it and Nick could replay a 3 second piece of a song, a
dinosaur roar, video clip, or 6 second movie segment back-to-back over and over
for hours either in the real world or just in his head.
He gets so happy; he
jumps up and down laughing hysterically as he spins and drools with joy!
I know to some of you this may sound cute and harmless yet it is anything
but. Sadly, this thing that Nick loves so much that makes him so happy is
like a drug, when you're up it's great, but the crash is ugly.
Nick repeats and in
doing so he grows more and more excited with each spin around the loop. But
unlike the rest of us he cannot regulate his body's response to the things he
loves. Repeating gets him overstimulated, when he is overstimulated, he can't
think of anything else but the thing that stimulates him, and he loses all
impulse control. When he is asked to stop, he gets upset. When he gets upset,
he doesn't hear what you say to him, he begins to tantrum and he cannot be
redirected to anything positive. He often becomes aggressive and then he falls
into intense sadness and crying as he crashes that can last up to 24 hours.
It's so sad that things
he loves are bad for him, and that is why I call it his heroine!
Sadly, the problem is
not just limited to how it makes him feel. Having things repeat over and over
and taking part in Nick's tantrums makes others feel anxious, angry, tortured,
nervous, frustrated and ready to crawl out of their skins as they beg him to
stop and then are forced to deal with the fallout.
What I know for sure is
that this aspect of Nick's autism will be with him for a lifetime, but the
fallout for us has been minimized using these five strategies. For Nick it's all
about;
1. Constantly working to
expand his areas of interest. The more things he has to do, the fewer
opportunities he has to focus on his obsession's.
2. Restricting his
access to ANYTHING that he can use to access his obsessions. In Nicks case no
one is allowed to let Nick get on a computer, a cell phone, TV, or tablet
unless we have agreed exactly how it is being used, and Nick is not controlling
it.
3. Finding if there is
any formula that works where he can have any amount of his obsessions. In
Nick's case Nick can earn 15 minutes, 1 day per week of free time on the
computer. During this time, he can look up and repeat any of his obsessions. I
have learned that is how much he can tolerate and still retain impulse control.
A change as simple as letting him go for 20 minutes results in a lack of
impulse control and the subsequence crash.
4. Making sure EVERYONE
who is around Nick knows the rules and follows them, even when they think I'm
wrong or being too hard on him.
5. Introducing incompatible
behaviors. When Nick wants to be in his head playing one of his favorite video
loops, I have him do an activity where he cannot be in his head at the same
time. For him coloring a picture, doing a puzzle or a word search work. He can’t
do any of these and play a video because the two activates are incompatible.
5. Not letting anyone
talk me out of what I know is best for Nick. For years I let
"experts" convince me and sometimes shame me into letting Nick
indulge in his obsessions. And, in the end, Nick did not build an
improved tolerance, or gain from the experience. Instead, I was always left to
deal with the fallout when they moved on to another case, or headed home. I
finally learned that no matter how hard others tried to convince me that a
little heroine can't be that bad!
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