Autism Support Group

This is for local parents of children on the ASD spectrum, specifically autistic children. This would be an open minded group, with topics ranging from biomedical treatments to last nights dinner. My goal in starting this is to help myself and other parents with all issues that having a autistic child can bring upon a family. As well as help my child and other children recover from autisum either fully or to the extent of their ability.

Location: Sarasota/Bradenton

For more information visit http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/hiseyesspeak/?yguid=322481864.

What you are describing is called delayed echolalia. It is often a self-stimulatory behavior, i.e. one that is automatically reinforced (they do it because they like it, is self-calming, entertaining, etc). But, it also sounds as though it is providing a method of escape from demand, since he is doing it during work time. I would recommend 1) having the family reduce the amount of movies he is allowed to watch over and over. He should watch them one time through, without stopping to rewind and replay his favorite parts. 2) Provide some sort of reinforcement for timed periods of independent work. Determine how long he can work without the echolalia, and divide that in half. For example, if he can work for 2 minutes before "movie talking" cut the time to 1 minute, and after every 1 minute of working independently, provide reinforcement (you can use a 10 piece token board that can be exchanged for something he likes to do, or even for a break at the end of 10 tokens. During the break he can do a reinforcing activity for a few minutes, and then return to work.) Systematically increase the amount of time he works before he earns a token. Remember, he only earns the token for working independently without the movie talk. A lot of parents have given their children a time at home to engage in this behavior, alone in their room, after school, for a timed period, since it can be a form of decompression for so many kids. Hope this helps.

Those are great suggestions Tara.  Once the student shows progress with that intervention, I would also focusing on teaching him to self manage the behavior as he is 14 years old.  For example, you could teach him to take data on whether or not he engages in the behavior (i.e. each time the timer goes off he records +/-) and assist him in establishing his own contingencies (i.e. "if I earn 10 + then I get to...").  

Hello, I have a 4 year old son that people are telling me he is autistic but the neurologist that I took him to didn't even tell me if he was or not. I am trying to figure out is there a place that I can take him to so we can finally know. We are going through Child Find for his school situation. I live in North Tampa and I don't have a car.