Not aware of blurting out?

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DH and I did a few experiments in the last week or so. Our son (11-1/2) speaks out {usually something negative} and he is not aware of himself even speaking. This has also been happening in class -- and it gets him into loads of trouble. He always denies that he speaks out and then argues (because he thinks he's right).

Is this "normal" for kids with Asperger's?? Because it really concerns me -- especially at school. I'm not sure what other schools do for blurting out negative things in class (we already learned this; this is stupid, why do we need to learn this?). They want to add this to his behavior plan (and discipline him accordingly), but I'm not sure what can be done to make him AWARE of himself speaking -- and then getting his brain to function normally. (Ha Ha!!) Or his his brain just going haywire??

The school wants to video him. My husband and I discussed it and we don't trust the school to do this.

What have other schools done to make their child aware of speaking out?? And then NOT denying it.

And what type of professional can help me with this (besides a behavior specialist)??

Also - he has always had the problem of following us too closely in a store. He has a depth-perception difficulty (strabissmus) and cannot gauge distance. Therefore, he's always tripping on the back of our feet. This weekend, he was hanging onto the grocery cart and slowly veered the cart toward the shelves. And then denied it because he was not even aware. So he seems less aware of body distance, too.

Would love to hear from other Aspies on how they may have been helped to make them aware of blurting out.

Hi Picklejah

My daughter (same age as your lad) also does this. She have very low self esteem and I have found if she is stressed negative comments come thick and fast. Please see my post "Inappropriate Comments", I got some good feedback.

As was pointed out to me, AS kids have no filter system between their mind and mouth (Tony Attwood also mentioned this in his book). She just seems to speak whats on her mind

Obviously every child is different - Currently we are using ABA as a token economy system and so far so good. She has 4-5 "rules" in class she must follow and one is "I will not make a negative comment in class or corridor". She gets a for each time she gets through a class without doing this and a reward at the end of the day and week if she has coped well. So far this is working. My daughter has become very focused on following these rules and we are lucky that the school are very supportive and give her lots of positive encouragment. We have found that this positive reinforcement works better than any disiplne can.

I would discuss the perception issues with your occupational thearpist, they might be able to suggest some exercises to help his spatial awareness??

Just to mention another possibility - but Tourette's can be concurrent with Aspergers.

It's interesting how if a child has diagnosed Tourette's, people will generally leave them alone under the assumption that they have no control over what they say, but with Aspergers they assume the child is purposefully misbehaving. I am guessing that there are similarities between the two, and that blurting in both can be controlled to a certain degree - but for some reason we hold Aspergers kids - who, after all, have at minimum a social communication deficit - to a higher standard.

You caused me to hit the internet for some answers, and I found this excellent article on classroom management that has nothing to do with either dysfunction, but with blurting in general: http://teacher.scholastic.com/professio ... blurts.htm

If the school is interested in helping your son grow, I think the outline above is a good way to approach the problem - if I were in your situation, I'd be concerned that their video idea doesn't offer any specific remedy for the behavior. "Proving" he blurted would be useful if he were lying, but since he might be completely unaware of his actions, it may well serve to upset and confuse him (I envision a smart little Aspie kid accusing the school of video forgery.)

From the small amount you wrote, it sounds to me as though your son is keeping in a fair amount of stress, and it's leaking out verbally - my son is allowed to take breaks from the classroom when he becomes agitated, and it does help stopping some of the negative behaviors before they start.

There are many NT kids that do the exact same things you described, including the denying and arguing. I think he knows he is saying it but is in defiance mode. This does not to me, seem to be directly related to AS.

Regarding the vision issues, my son also has strabissmus, along with other issues. Depth/distance perception is difficult for him as it is with your son. My son sees a developmental optometrist and is in weekly vision therapy. We are now 7 weeks in (out of 40 weeks ordered) and there has been a major improvement. He is no longer misjudging distance and getting hurt or in trouble for breaking stuff. I highly recommend it but it is very expensive ($120 per week) and most insurance companies do not cover it because it is considered experimental.

Video taping may help if he truly doesn't realize that he is saying those things out loud. Use of video was suggested to us by our OT. The reasoning was a bit different but I can see some analogy here. We were advised to video our son during a time when he habitually was having difficulty. For example, last year at school he had a difficult time transitioning from lunchtime to going outside for recess during the winter time when this transition necessitated getting one winter clothes (snowpants, coat, hat gloves). The teacher struggled with him every day on this. He liked being outside once he got there and would eventually comply with the process but it almost always took a significant amount of time and effort. The idea was to video him through this process then edit out the struggle part and just show him the teacher asking him to get on his outside clothes, him getting the clothes on and then him outside having fun. This gave him a sense that he could do it AND that he could do it without the repeated coaxing, reminders, tears, shouting, etc.

I asked a trusted friend to take the video. It was a person with whom my son was familiar but not so much that his presence in the classroom particularly effected my son's behavior. If someone you and he both trusted could be allowed to take the video maybe he would believe it when he watched himself. You could watch it together and talk about appropriate vs inappropriate behavior and develop some strategies he could use to keep those thoughts in his mind instead of coming out his mouth!