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My son is 7 years old. He got a plastic football out of a kids meal today from a local resaurant. It's the kind of ball that you can blow up with a little plug to hold the air. Well, it's going on about 5 hours now that he's been continually blowing it up and then after a few minutes, he unplugs it to let out the air. He's taken breaks from it every now and then to throw it around the house and "punch" it up into the air and catching it. What I'm concerned about is, that when he blows up the ball, it releases some air before he's able to plug it. He's very angry about this and he's been doing lots of screaming. His little face is all red and he looks very stressed. I keep telling him we should put the ball away because it's making him mad. He yells at me and says "NO, I'm going to keep doing it until it's the way I want it!" I think I should take it away because it's obviously upsetting him a great deal. Is there a way to go about this without causing him to "explode"?

What about other situations similar to this? Things like this happen on a daily basis. Sometimes several times a day.

does he have any interests that you could use to lure his attention away from the ball?

i can relate to how he feels that he wants the ball to be precisely "how he wants it." would it make any difference if you suggested to him that perhaps the ball isn't meant to be fully inflated?

at the moment, it probably feels (to him) that the ball is tormenting him. perhaps there is some way that you could re-divert his determination from inflating the ball to resisting the urge to do so? you could offer him a reward if he manages to leave the ball alone for a certain amount of time.

when he does move on from this fixation (which he will eventually, how ever you decide to deal with it) give him lots of praise- tell him that he is very clever for realising that he had to give-in and that you are proud of him. remind him that some things will never be perfect and there's nothing anyone can do to change that- we have to learn appreciate things as they are (sorry if that's a bit deep for a seven year old, but maybe it will come in useful when he's a bit older).

Will he let you blow it up? If you can blow it up very tightly and then quickly close the seal with your tongue (yes, I am serious!) by flipping the little plastic plug, it should stay firmer than if he tries to close it with his finger after removign it from his mouth. The air leaks out in between. If you then dry it off, you can put a piece of clear packaging tape over the seal and plug and it should stay inflated for a while.

As you can tell, this has been an irritation to me as well...and I'm grown..

My son does the same kind of thing. I don't have any easy answers except to help him find a solution to the problem, to take time out from it, or to give him a logical explanation of why the frustrating event is occurring.

Hi! my son is obsesive about things like that too and YUP he gets upset! like today he HAD to finish a video game he was so obsessed over it he wet his pants I agree that you should help him or show him how can keep it inflated. I usually blow those with my finger in my mouth at the same time to catch the air quick, those inflatable things can be annoying

Well, we figured out what worked for that particular situation. I was sort of at a loss, so I handed him the phone and had him talk to my husband (step-dad) who was at work. My husband had him start a list of the things that he can do and the things he can't do about the ball. It calmed him down right away because it gave him something different to focus on. So, my son sat there on the phone with my husband and wrote out a list as they came up with ideas. My son finally decided to wait until my husband got home and have him blow it up for him. When my husband got home, he did what he promised. My son was instantly upset because again the ball was not as tight as he thought it should be. My husband explained to him that it's not a real football, so it's not suppost to be as tight as a real football... and he explained that if he blew it up too tight it could cause it to break. My son thought about it for a second and then said, "Okay." And that was the end of that.

So, I guess I learned a lesson from it. I'm so glad that my husband was a quick thinker!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Hecate, you were right about the fact that he didn't understand that it wasn't suppost to be tight. It's amazing how something that simple could have prevented him from becoming so incredibly upset and stressed for all those hours. I've never liked those inflatable toys either... they really are difficult to handle.

Hi!
My son used to get that way too when he was little. He would line toys up and be upset if anybody moved them. He would just sit there and look at them and not play with them. Maybe all aspie kids are a little obsessive compulsive. What sometimes worked was if I calmly set limits on his behavior and made him do something else. Of course, sometimes nothing worked. Aspie kids seem to transition poorly from one activity to another.