inappropriate talking to yourself

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By the way,

Needhelp, as far as your son talking to himself...

I've always done that, and still do at fifty years old.

A huge part of the concern for parents when it comes to their kids talking to themselves is how others will perceive it. While I do think to some extent it's a valid concern, the bigger concern should be how HE feels about it. If it doesn't bother him, there's really not too much to be concerned about.

I used to be concerned about people seeing or hearing me talking to myself. About fifteen years ago I got a job spending a lot of time in store coolers, stocking them. I'd talk to myself quite a bit while working. As if there really were someone else there talking back. One day I was going on a mile a minute and looked up to see one of our regular customers standing in front of the cooler with the door open, staring at me with a really weird look on her face. Obviously, she'd been listening for a bit.

Without missing a beat, I looked right at her and said, "Hey! No fair eavesdropping on my private party!"

A few minutes later, I waited on her at the register and she asked me, "Do you always talk to yourself like that in the coolers?"

"No," I said, "I talk to myself everywhere else too!"

The guy I was working with nodded at her and said, "Yup. He really does," and she shrugged, then answered, "I guess we all do now and then."

Everybody who knows me knows I do it. it doesn't bother me at all anymore.

It's really only a problem if the people I imagine I'm talking to start talking back. But that doesn't happen.

If your son knows it's just imagination, and isn't hearing voices talking back to him, it's really not a big deal. Most of us do talk to ourselves at least some of the time. Some more than others. Sometimes I think we worry to much about what other people think of it. it's one of those things a lot of people do, but a lot aren't willing to admit.

You may want to talk to him about how others might perceive it. He may not care a lick. But if he does care, he might tone it down a bit, or at least look around and take notice whether anyone might be listening. In the end, it's pretty much up to him whether or not to let it bother him. The thing is though, there's really nothing at all "wrong" with it. I would just avoid talking to him about it in a way that might make him feel there is something wrong with it, and by proxy, wrong with him.

Think of it as a neat little quirk. I don't know if you liked the guy or not, but Andy Kaufman talked to himself all the time. He ended up making a great living entertaining people.

I am 41 and still talk to myself a lot. It's one way that I actually think. If I couldn't talk to myself, it'd make it difficult for me to assemble my thoughts coherently.

Well, at least I could still use computers and write, but I mean there may be some level of executive function tied up in audible self talk, for some people at least.

47 and talk to myself ALL THE TIME. I rehearsh mostly for upcoming important conversations, lectures, classes, etc.. But sometimes I do it just to hear myself talk. Much like my Miniature Schnauzer. (I swear he doesn't shut up some days)

If you are gonna have a kid with AS, YOU have to start being okay with being different and get him to be okay with it too.

Yes, I talk to myself alot. I also use vocabulary that others find hard to understand, which annoys them sometimes. I am trying to do less of it, and "tone down" the conversations with myself.

It's hard to strike a balance between inhibiting the kid and leaving him wide open to being ostracised. It might be best to leave it be, but when he's old enough to understand, warn him that some people may think him strange for doing it in front of them. Trouble is, he might get ostracised before he's old enough to know. Though any school that allows that kind of exclusion of young children, isn't doing a very good job.

One of the reasons I like solitude is that I can talk to myself without worrying about what anybody thinks. I do a lot of rehearsing and I often discuss things with myself as if I were two separate people with opposing views. It keeps my brain in the habit of talking with reasonably good intonation (I'm a mumbler by nature), and it helps me focus on my own thoughts, and clarify them. I also talk my own back legs off worse than I do to anybody else, and I view it as an opportunity to learn how to shorten my comments and avoid detours, though I haven't made much progress there yet. I used to feel that I should stop it, so that I'd be normal and wouldn't be risking being overheard, but not any more. There's a lady here at work who I "caught" talking to herself......I pretended I hadn't noticed, and began talking to her in a friendly way, in the hope of reassuring her that I don't think she's strange. She's always struck me as one of the best people we've got, because she's always very personable and jolly.