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It makes me so sad that ds never becomes excited about anything.

9 replies

macwoozy · 03/03/2007 23:30

My ds, 6 years with ASD, rarely becomes excited about future events or presents, unless it involves his latest obsession, but even then he never shows real emotion. Like tonight, I gave him a nintendo ds game that I knew he'd love, it was meant to be for his birthday, but he's had such a hard time lately I just wanted to make him happy, I was excited when I gave it to him, although I should know better. Instead of being enthralled with his new game, he just said in a flat voice 'its good that it's for a 6+ years game'(He saw that on the cover) After no more than 5 mins playing on his nintendo, he reverted back to getting into his own little world moving around the lounge, totally oblivious to everyone. Does anyone else get really disheartened when giving presents to their children and seeing their reaction?

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macwoozy · 03/03/2007 23:44

I just read that through, and it sounds like ds just doesn't get excited about anything, he actually gets over-excited at times but usually when it's so unlikely that he should. Sometimes he bounces off the walls with euphoria, but why I don't know, I just don't seem to be understanding him too well at the moment!

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mymatemax · 03/03/2007 23:53

At xmas DS2 (4) wasn't interested. I helped him unwrap his presents & then he refused to take anything out of the boxes, just left them there all stacked up. I'm convinced he would have been just as happy with cornflakes boxes.
It is hard I think it is more upsetting because we just want them to show happiness IYKWIM.
I bet he'll be glued to his new game when you want him to do something else though!

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macwoozy · 04/03/2007 00:10

It would have been alot easier on the pocket if you had of given him cornfake boxes. My ds kind of reacted the same. Alhough he did show much interest in opening his presents come Xmas morning, (although not typical excited child/Xmas reaction) he took at least a week before he would properly investigate many of them.(He did have loads though He would become interested when I offered to check them out, but didn't seem bothered enough to do it himself. So unlike me as a kid, I couldn't get them out of the box quick enough.

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onlyjoking9329 · 04/03/2007 10:27

two of my kids are like this with pressies and i think it is that they don't like the suprize element and also never keen on new things.
DD,unwrapped all her pressies had then piled all pressies up and wouldn't play with any of them, yesterday she actually took a pressie out of the box! i wonder how long until she plays with it!

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mymatemax · 04/03/2007 10:43

I think your right onlyjoking, he has in his own time looked at his presents but I suppose he had to get used to them being there first.
I guess he is pleased in his own way!
But cornflakes would have been cheaper.
It is all just such a contrast to ds1 who had all the paper ripped off in 10 mins & then moaned when we couldn't get the things out of the packaging quick enough.

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Jimjams2 · 04/03/2007 20:00

ds1 doesn;t mind surprises - but until he was 6 he didn't understand what presents were. Now he knows (and will open anyone's if we;re not watching ) but his reaction is funny. Ifg he likes it he squats down entrallled, and loses interest in opening anything else. If he doesn't like it he drops it to the floor and walks off!

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onlyjoking9329 · 04/03/2007 20:13

JJ my three are like that, it is embrassing if they open a pressie when the giver is there, every year without fail DD will find the smallest parcel (matchbox size) and say is it a dolls pram? then she chucks it in disgust. they are better now but we did used to do presents in coloured cellophane

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mymatemax · 04/03/2007 23:28

JJ, ds2(4) had a similar reaction to birthday present from my sil, she opened it as he wasn't interested, he took it off of her looked at it said "no thank you" & dropped it & went back to watching top gear!
It was a little embaressing but it made me laugh as she'd spent the previous few minutes telling me that he shouldn't be in nappies at 4 & if he spent a day with her he'd be toilet trained!

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macwoozy · 05/03/2007 09:04

I agree with you onlyjoking when you mention not liking surprises. My ds needs time to adjust to things too so his reaction to surprises is quite unusual. But his dad is just the same, I found this really hurtful when we first met, but I know he doesn't mean to cause any offence. I have to try and conjure up the excitement for the pair of them, can be really hard work sometimes