Do your NT boys “info dump”?

[Ozgirl75]

My 12 year old isn’t autistic as far as I know but he does have a few traits that make me question this sometimes. He goes through phases where he learns everything about a subject: cars, dinosaurs, space, Pokémon, aeroplanes and then wants to tell you every little bit of information. It’s not a conversation, it’s more like a documentary.
He has normal conversations at other times and I don’t really have any other areas of concern apart from he can be anxious about things but again, not all the time and to me they’re semi reasonable things like not wanting to go into a dark enclosed muddy hole on school camp, slightly worrying about planes crashing and sometimes more existential things like “how do I make my mark on the world when I only have 80 years or so”.
So, do your otherwise NT boys (or girls!) do the thing of learning everything about a subject and then talking at you about it? My other son doesn’t do this at all.

My autistic child brain dumps, and my neurological typical child brain dumps. Children are boring. They learn stuff and love it and want you to know every detail!!! It's boring. Tedious. But ime all children do it

Yes both mine do this. On the way home from school we often have big arguments about who is going to regale me with the inane details of their day first!

Yeah my NT and ND sons both do. Reminds me of Thai comedy sketch

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfk4wybHgUw

My NT sons both did/do this. The youngest DS is a man of few words, and then every so often he’ll just start talking and won’t pause for breath. It’s nice to hear about the things that have sparked their interest 😊

I go through phases of learning about different subjects, but I don't talk about them, usually I just make notes in my notebooks, then when I get reinspired I learn another topic

Oh good - I guess it’s that in so many ways he seems quite grown up and then when it comes to his “specialist subject” he just talks on and on with seemingly no heed that after 5 minutes or so I’m losing interest.

I think it’s particularly noticeable at the moment as it’s aeroplanes and I just have so little interest. When it was dinosaurs it held my interest for longer, and when it was The American Revolution, I was genuinely interested.
I want him to share his passions with me, but equally I don’t want him to grow into one of those men who just talks and talks at you without making it a conversation.

My DS (4) who I think is NT does this - current passion is Pokémon, which is pretty impressive considering he can't read properly yet. He info dumps huge amounts of Pokémon facts - it's both exasperating & impressive!

Yes! Mine at 4 was dinosaurs and I was like “you can learn anomalocaris but you can’t read yet?”

My 12yo DS is waiting for an ADHD diagnosis but he has always had special interest, his latest has been going on about 2 years and he is utterly obsessed. Any conversation he can turn around in 19 seconds flat.

Yes

Just wait until he’s into Minecraft

The infodumps last months

Months!!!

Yes. I would say he’s on the nerdy side and shy, but no ND diagnosed. He’s interested in a range of obscure things and topics and loves to talk about them. Now he’s an older teen he’s better at give and take in a conversation, and I can tell him if I’m too frazzled to listen sometimes. When he was younger esp about 7-12, he could wang on for hours, honestly I don’t even know how he was breathing in.

We had the Minecraft infodump last year! Even my other son got in on that one as well.
This is reassuring, thank you. Of course, if he was autistic it would be fine, but I would want to know how best to assist him.

I thought this was just a bit of a mansplaining thing 😅

My younger ds does it, he has SEN. My partner occasionally does it, and my DF talks at me all the time. They're both undiagnosed with anything and NT as far as I'm aware.

My older DS doesn't tend to do it, and for that I am grateful 😅

Yes, DS does, though I am ND, and he has some traits. His friends do too, though not to me. They are doing similar A levels to him, Maths, FM, Com Sci, Physics, and are PC gamers, so a certain type!

Reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons were Homer gets obsessed with Thomas Edison.

I think it's normal to want to share your interest with other people. As long as he can talk about other things, and it doesn't effect his friendships or schooling, I wouldn't worry.

My 11 yr old DS does this and we’ve also been through Minecraft and Pokémon. Most recent was the World Cup, particularly Messi and Mbappe.
I humour him and show interest to be kind but sometimes I reach saturation point and ask him to stop talking about x subject to which he earnestly tries for about 4 seconds before he says “but can I just tell you…”

Not ND as far as I know and he is capable to holding convos about other things but never wants to talk to me about his school day!

Yes. All the time.

He is the nerdy end of the personality spectrum though. So loves maths and science etc.

Mine is also a self confessed nerd who loves facts and knowledge in general. I’m just cautious of him becoming a know it all bore. Equally, I love that he has interests and will learn everything about them.

The people who love me have been gently suppressing this behaviour for 60 years. My 5 year old grandson has taken up the challenge however, and I confidently expect South Northumberland to be fully informed about Gravitrax within the week.