Constantly verbal daughter

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My teenage daughter is highly verbal and sings mostly ALL of the time! To be honest it drives me nuts sometimes The singing can go on for most of the day. When she was little she had very fast bizarre language, almost like she couldnt get her words out fast enough. Is this a sign of some sort of anxiety with Aspergers? Anyone else come across this with their son/daughter? Thanks

Sounds like a type of stim. Self-calming. My son can't stop fingering everything in site, your daughter sings.

I sang a lot in my early teens. I sang myself to sleep every night, and it probably drove my parents nuts.

This kind of thing is not always anxiety-related. In fact, most stims are not anxiety-related. Instead, they are simply really pleasurable. The autistic brain tends to glom onto an activity and love it to death, so the autistic person will keep doing that activity and love doing it too.

In your daughter's case, it is probably a phase that will pass, as these phases usually do by themselves.

My 11 years-old is very verbal at times and loves singing, but she will stop when asked to, or close the door of her room. They have to express themselves, but we also have the right to be calm if we need to, so maybe you can talk about it an find middle ground.

To all parents who are bothered by the verbalizations of their autistic children:

Get some earplugs to block out the unwanted sensory stimuli.

I hope you can read between the lines of the preceding lines.

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I kind of knew from my severely autistic son that the singing is a stim but my daughter has gone through a particularly difficult time recently and the singing has increased tenfold, so I guess it's her way of self calming. I did bring it up with her yesterday, she said that she just loves to sing and doesnt know she is doing it half the time. At least I have made her aware of it now, but I don't wish to stop her as it helps her, besides she has a really sweet singing voice like our son

I am glad you talked to her about it. I think it is important for her to learn how to control it, because while at home you don't mind, if she does it in other places it can get her into trouble (at school, for example). You don't have to ask her to stop, but you can ask her to lower the volume. If she learns to control the volume she can sing all the time without disturbing others.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that some kids need to talk a lot to get a "clear picture" of the what is going on. My DD is very verbal as well and her talking aloud is part of what helps her process her environment. Because she is so visually cued (and verbal), she is in essence "painting a portrait" of her environment- verbalizing what she sees helps lock it in her memory. This is particularly true when we visit someplace new (where it's a little odd that she is so excited and doesn't stop talking). She doesn't do it all the time however and I have to think that it does help calm her as well.

My daughter switches between highly verbal and total silence. I love the verbal times. She can be in the back of the car and speak continually for half an hour, all the way to town, the only questions she asks are rhetorical. She's like this when she's happy and says sweet things like, 'Isn't that man really nice, it was lovely of him to .....' and away she goes on and on about the man, who didn't do anything special really. If I collect her from school and she's like that, I know she's had a good day.

As for the singing, she attends Scottish Opera workshops for little kids and I'd recommend this sort of thing to anyone with a child who loves to sing or act. She sings a lot, in Italian too.

My son sings a lot also, top of his voice mostly I can ignore other times it drives me a bit crazy.

My son also never stops talking and yells a lot. Sometimes I literally think it is going to make me insane. I try to remember there are parents who would give anything to hear their child talk, but sometimes I just want to say be quiet fo five seconds! I agree that I think it helps him process what is going on around him. Even when he is in his room by himself playing video games he is talking the whole time.

I talk to myself a lot as a self-calming thing, but I can stop if someone asks me to. Same thing I guess. I definitely do it more when stressed.