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| Sat, 09-23-2006 - 12:31am |
Hi I'm Desiree in North Texas!
I have a question about my oldest dd Natalie... we took her for counseling last year and she was dx with ODD, and the counselor strongly suspected AS.
My concern is this... the last 4 weeks I have been very preoccupied with my dh who recently had brain surgery (shunt revision for hydrocephalus). During this time she has watched a little more TV than she should and I haven't been able to constantly supervise what she watches. She has become hooked on this one cartoon that under normal circumstances I would NEVER allow her to watch due to the content. Because of the AS, this has become her latest fascination... everything from homemade puppets to hand drawn pictures and cut outs hanging from the ceiling above her bunkbed. I know this is not a good influence on her, but b/c of the AS I know it is her current obsession... plus I have to deal with the ODD on top of that if I try to put a stop to it.
I've tried getting her to change interests before, but I really don't know how to go about it successfully. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks so much!!!!



Hello and welcome.
How long do her special interests typically last? Is this something that will fade on it's own?
If so what I would likely do is try to make some rules around it. For instance, only at home, or certain times of the day, etc. So she isn't drawing these pictures during school time or other times when it isn't appropriate. You may need some sort of reinforcer plan to get compliance with that. Contracts work great with my kids but sometimes verbal reinforcment is enough. I would also keep it general enough that it is a long term rule for all obsessions. Like "In school we do school work" and reinforce her for that.
We often have similar problems, not with drawing by talking. In the middle of church my son will turn and start talking to me about his latest obsession. And getting him to stop is near impossible. He HAS to get the whole thought out. I just neutrally remind him that we are in church and it is time to talk about or listen about church. When he is able to do that I reinforce him. I know he ticked off the lady in front of me last week because he just couldn't stop "mom, mom, in keys to the kingdom book 2....." "Mike it is time to be quiet we are in church" (few minutes later) "mom,mom then in chapter 2" "mike, ...." you get the idea. He knows he can ask questions and talk about church to me so I can explain but that is it. But sometimes he just can't stop.
But having aspie's with obsessions myself I don't think there is a way to change obsessions unless you find something of equal interest and sneak it in. Mike's obsessions are within a range of possibilities but they are ever changing so this is possible. I have a good idea what he would become obsessed with so just picking up a new movie, video game or book in his interest type area would work. However, Cait's obsessions are animals and neopets in general and there would never be changing those.
I have to echo what Renee said. Both of my spectrum kids have obsessions, and in the past, we made attempts to eliminate the obsessions. Every time, we failed miserably. The only thing that has ever worked is establishing boundaries around the obsessions.
It might help to remember that obsessions, regardless of how annoying they can be, give our spectrum kiddos a sense of being in control - when lots of times, they're brains don't allow them to feel that way. Obsessions for AS kids can be very helpful, the trick is to find ways to use them to your advantage.
Good Luck~
Amy
Desiree,
Welcome, welcome! Please pull up a chair and have a cuppa.
Boy! Brain surgery, huh? well no-one can blame you for letting her watch some extra TV. Man! That is one stressful event on a family. How is he doing, BTW?
I agree with Renee,
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