Embarrasing problem with DS......

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-28-2008
Embarrasing problem with DS......
5
Thu, 02-28-2008 - 10:19pm

My 9 year old DS who has an AS Dx, plays with his penis...alot. To the point of exposing himself at times. We seemed to have decreased this activity in public, although he still frequently does it at home. I was just wondering if anyone else had/has a problem with this sort of thing and if there were any tips or tricks I should be trying. We've just been hammering that it's a private activity that he should not do where other people can see. I'm just worried that in this day and age that he'll get slapped with a sexual harrassment complaint or something of that sort. It's embarrassing and worrisome.

Drea

Andrea, mom to

Graham
Miles
Anson
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-12-2004
Thu, 02-28-2008 - 11:31pm

Yup we have that! My DS is 5. He was putting his hand in his pants and I kept at it telling him only to do it in private, and his teachers would always require him to wash his hands whenever he did it. We also developed a hand signal as a reminder, as it's equally embarassing to bring everyone's attention to the fact he's doing it by saying "take your hands out of your pants!". He actually stopped putting them in his pants and now plays with it from the outside. Oh joy. But I take comfort in the fact that he did stop the one behavior and replaced it with a slightly less problematic one. At least now people think he just has to go to the bathroom.

It does seem like he's practically unconscious he's doing it, but I think with a lot of repetition of feedback, we'll get there.
So bottom line, for us, hand signals, reminders every time we see it happening, and hopefully it will diminish.
If not, it's the chastity belt for us.
Actually, writing that, it just occurred to me that a sports cup might work, although maybe too obvious? Sort of like one of those dog collars the vets put on to keep them from scratching...
I bet somebody's invented something for this problem, though.

Elaine

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 02-29-2008 - 11:15am

Hi, we have a similar situation.

                                

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 02-29-2008 - 11:36am

Hmmm. I thought I responded but don't see it. My NT ds used to do this. As a sensory thing, his boy parts just bothered him all the time. The parts would stick together, they'd sit in a lump and annoy him, etc. He was ALWAYS moving things around to be less uncomfortable or holding them out of the way.

We just kept doing the same thing everyone else did. Telling him not to do it in public, washing hands afterward, etc. It took a long time, but eventually (a couple of years, maybe) he quit doing it. Whew!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2005
Fri, 02-29-2008 - 12:41pm

We have the same problem and our son is 5.5 too.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-05-2003
Sat, 03-01-2008 - 5:11pm
Yes, much less now than before, but at 7 we had to take him out of Karate because he kept pulling his pants