Does your child spend a lot of time alone at home?

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Yeah, PunkyKat.... I sort of noticed that my little girl is "REALLY" happy to be alone. She is a lot better about coming out and playing with us than she used to be. She is getting better every day, but she still "needs" alone time. Some kids take naps, but mine just needs a few hours of alone time and then she is like a new kid. I don't really think the alone time is a big deal because I can see that she is refreshed when she comes out of her room. It is good to know that she is on the conservative end of "time spent alone", however. I think she can go between 3 and 6 hours each day. It depends on what activities are planned for the day, really. Oddly... the days she goes to playschool are the days that she spends more like 6 hours of alone time. She likes playschool, but she is a MESS when I pick her up most of the time. It's like a "nervous but happy" experience for her. Weird, huh?

By the way, folks! Thank you all so much for casting votes in my pole! I really enjoy checking the numbers every now and again.

So far, it looks like 3-6 hours and 6 or more are the most popular responses. I wonder if maybe the truth lies someplace around the 5 to 7 hour mark? Ya know? I would say my child is a pretty firm "6" most days.

Do you know this 'alone time' is one of the hardest things for me to get right? I am torn between me wanting my child to engage with the family, and respecting that he needs his own space. I am learning that it is selfish of me not to allow him this space.

My son attends an ASD specific pre-school, and they have 'told' us to allow him time to switch off when he comes home, as school is hard work for him, even just being around his peers for a few hours would be like work for him. I guess that would make sense why your daughter has more alone time on school days, she needs the time to process the day.

I am still trying to learn the right balance for my child. When I read so many stories about AS people 'wanting' to be alone, it has made me hold back a bit and try to give him the space he needs, as he is not able to express his feelings yet. xx

I prefer to spend time alone; I socialize, but I like for those encounters to be planned in advance. I get very uncomfortable if people I don't know very well drop by unexpectedly.

I spent a lot of time alone as a child, too.

Since I think that I may also have AS the alone thing seems really natural to me. The only thing that is "weird" to me is the way it looks from my adult perspective. For example... I had a friend over for coffee the other day and the whole time she was here (about 3 hours) my daughter only came downstairs once. She wanted something to drink and I gave it to her. After that she went right back up to her room. My friend commented that it was "odd" that she was having so much fun alone fo rso long. I said that she doesn that all the time and she just looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.... at least I think that is what the look was all about....

I can be social when I want to be now, but I don't really "like to socialize" unless the company is really good. I prefer to spend time and socialize with people who are interested in the same things that I am.

My son would play a lot by himself a lot! Even now he is still a loner! When he does decide to be around people he would rather be around adults than children. He even acts like a little adult. He will refer to his brother and sisters as the kids! We just kinda let him hang out with us.