What would you do ?(Lego obsession)

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Registered: 03-31-2003
What would you do ?(Lego obsession)
3
Fri, 10-07-2005 - 3:34am

Hypothetical situation:

You are a 7 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome. You live, eat, and breathe Legos. You have tubs of Legos and Bionicles all over the place. You find it difficult to build anything unless you spread them in a thin veneer across the carpet. You like to keep the Harry Potter Legos separate from the Star Wars Legos and your brother's Lego City Legos, but you lack the patience it takes to put away more than about ten Lego pieces.

You make a lot of cool things, and you like to display your creations on the bookshelf. And on the dining table. And on your dad's nightstand. And in the main traffic areas. And wherever they happen to land when you absentmindedly drop them.

Often, a spaceship or something needs to be built, and you are vaguely aware of your mother chirping away like some kind of weirdo, "Yackity yack yack bedtime yack yack stop building yack yack yack tell you again yack yack forty-five minutes ago yack yack!!" She's getting on your nerves, but the spaceship ain't gonna build itself, so you do your best to tune her out.

Then, one day, you come home from school to find that all 18,000 of your Lego and Bionicle pieces (you think I'm exaggerating?) have vanished, and in their place is a big cabinet with a lock on it. Your mother tells you that she will only unlock the cabinet when you have shown that you are capable of going to bed at bedtime, coming to the table at dinner time, and making a reasonable effort to keep the Legos in a confined area.

How do you react?

**********

Evelyn ;)

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Registered: 10-03-2004
Fri, 10-07-2005 - 8:34am

Dear Evelyn,

You are hysterical You need to be writing children's books from an Aspie point of view!

Reaction? Oh, I would think hysteria, rage, wildness. Breakage, wreakage, murder, mayhem.

I guss I would never go about it like that. I would have a series of sitdowns and social stories, take lots of the blame myself for having allowed this situation to get so out of control for for him not to have developed a sense of responsibility and involvement WHILE still getting sometime to build Legos and Bionicles.

I would prepare him for some time for the ensuing change, cabinet and lockup. There would be colored charts and a point system for earning Lego and Bionicle time. He needs to become part of the team here, not the restricted prisoner, and this will be hard because you will actually have to change his expectations on how life will be lived. THe hardest part is reapplying the inevitabliilty without emotional attachment, simply restating over and over how it will be until he gets it that is a BIG change in the law of the land. No anger, lots of praise and rewards for good behavior. Once he gets used to it, your life will be so much better! Promise...

BUT this is a GOOD project. We have implemented this type of thing with all "screen" time. The point system and maximum time alloted to all screen, TV, Computer, game boy, has actually helped to keep Malcolm from becoming an addict!

Let us know how this goes.

and write more, you just crack me up!!!

Sara
ilovemalcolm

Avatar for nutmegspice
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 10-07-2005 - 9:39am

Oh wow......glad to know that we're not the only ones! Sam's room is chock block full or legos, transformers, bionicles.......anything tiny that a new baby could swallow of course;)

Sam would freak. Sara's ideas are great. You've probably tried this, but setting a timer works great for us to let Sam know when it's time to stop and get ready for bed. It's not fool-proof; if he's having an off-day or is especially tired than nothing will work.

We use a point system for "screen" time too. We use poker chips. He gets 2 for brushing his teeth in the morning and 2 for brushing at night. He used to get one for getting dress, putting on his shoes because he gave me such a hard time about getting ready in the morning. We've been able to cut those out though. Each chip is worth 1/2 an hour of tv. He gets a blue chip if he does any extra reading or writing practice. Those are worth 15 min. of video game time. He doesn't get many of those ;) He hates extra reading, calling it "practice" helps a little because then he doesn't feel like he has to do it right the first time; it's practice!

I have considered using this building interest as some sort of incentive. And we do remove toys for discipline and have emptied the room entirely for severe inappropriate behavior (such as throwing a rock at mom's head......fun.) He has such little time with it all day since he's at school and it's his little time of solace. He was complaining this morning how school is just work now, no more toys. I've thought of keeping a small stash of legos there for the teacher to use as incentive for him. Something to consider.

Loved your post.........hilarious!

Chrystee

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Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 10-07-2005 - 9:59am

I would have the Mother of all Meltdowns. It would last for DAYS. weeks, even! Fire, rescue helicopters and the local news would be involved. If you are lucky, the house would be left standing -just. Katie Couric would come to interview me about what a BAD MOTHER I have who is SO MEAN and UNFAIR.

The man in charge of the whole of Lego would be so impressed with me that he would just *give* me the whole company.

*You* would be put in JAIL, Mother. FOREVER!! And it would Serve. You. Right!

Don't you get that Legos and Bonicles are my LIFE? ;)

ROFL That was fun!

On a more serious note. I do remember Suzi mentioning something about this and she used a word for it -rumination, I think it was, whereas it almost goes beyond an obsession (there is a beyond?) and becomes all he can think about it. I think she had some suggestions to help. -can't remember what they were.

I would take a more gradual approach to the lego takever. You know, start around the edges and work my way inwards. After all, it probably took time to get to this point. It will take time to contain. I think Sara had some good suggestions.

GL

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com