ASD son doesn’t stop talking about his special subject

[Powerofpurple]

His special subject is countries of the world and he’s extremely knowledgeable on it (he’s 6 years old). His memory is incredible and he can draw a map of the world from memory and name every single flag.

But the one issue is that he doesn’t stop talking about it from the moment he wakes in the morning, until the moment he goes to sleep. Everything about it in all different forms - smallest to largest countries, eye colours of each country, populations, borders of each country, food from each country and so on and so on.

It’s never ending and as much as I enjoy hearing about it, it’s wearing me down.

Anyone going through Object Show? Thankfully DS found his tribe online so there are daily discussions and I'm not kept up to date anymore.

I was diagnosed with ASD at 17, so pretty late, but my mum recalls having the same problem. Thomas The Tank, Titanic, autopsy protocol and anatomy, Doctor Who, and all sorts of stuff. Several times she did snap and just tell me to shut up, which I understand more now I’m an adult.

One thing that did help is she used to get my dad to help me do “projects” on these things. He used to type them up and help me structure them, but I’d research them and do everything else. Obviously when I got older I didn’t need him to type it up, but I still did it. It helped me find an appropriate outlet for all the information and it actually helped me develop writing skills. Because he’s younger you might not be able to do a written project, but maybe something like that?

Sweet, and interesting how it's usually boys, isn't it?
With DS (bright, starting talking early and hasn't stopped since) it was herpetology then countries of the world, their capitals and even currencies, then all 50 US states and state capitals. Then American football teams and statistics. (We're Brits) Flags came into it a bit too.
DH has an opinion that the need to identify, count and classify is very much a male thing and perhaps linked to much further back in our history when men were hunters and needed to know as much as possible about their prey and wild animals generally, and to share the knowledge among other men in order to survive, feed their families and keep them safe.
(DS' party trick as a teenager and into his 20s was to be able to recite all the countries of the world and their capitals. He probably still can, has a prodigious memory.)

I’d be looking for some kind of geography club for him. Or getting him to make a children’s’ podcast series. I think there’s lots you can do with this that will challenge him but also keep him learning! At least this particular topic is a huge one so there’s a lot of angles!

He expects very particular responses or else he gets more in your face with it and he doesn't feel better after because sometimes he just starts again or flits from cereal bars to Tiddler to the registration numbers of all the Enviro 400s at a particular bus depot.... (coming up for air)

Oh god I felt this! If I’m not sufficiently attentive, DS will literally sit on me and hold my head still while he prattles on. We traipsed all the way to bloody Dublin to see an Enviro 500 (“3 axles mummy!”) And he has memorized all the serial numbers of buses on each route we take, and sings very loudly while we wait about whether it will be 165432 or 870436, no fucks given about the other people at the bus stop! He also loves helping elderly folk who look a bit lost at the bus station to get where they need to go, which admittedly is adorable.

Can I my 15 year with ASD to this;his room is full of flags,maps and globes;it'd probably make a fantastic headquarters for them although you'd probably have to contribute to snacks for the meetings as boy can these kids eat

Without teaching him the other parts of socialising, the rules within, he will always connect in a way that is meaningful for him, and of course in small doses this is ok, but to function in society, he will need some support about the social aspect. I did this with my autistic son from a very young age - go out, let him see you socialise. If he's diagnosed, check to see what's available for him. At my son's school they are very proactive in delivering social and personal well being classes so they can explore things that may not be innate to them.

I know he's at a really young age but my autistic 13 year old still does this constantly. I try to make hedging noises which gave me an escape for a while until she started testing me on specific anime characters. A further level of hell. She gets very angry if I don’t remember every name, every move they make in Genshin Impact or songs on Project Sekai. I have CPTSD (nothing do to with her), she's a school refuser with a PDA profile.
So yeah, life is fun...

How I wish, I really, really wish, my mother had done this with me. Never took the time to explain, rather would just lose it and say how boring I was (to everyone). And yet, would also take time to indulge my special interest as and when the fancy took her. I really wish she hadn't - it was all too confusing. I love what you say you've done for your son.

My guy very definitely wants a two-way conversation and makes it very clear. His special subject is transformers. He buys and sells them and likes to tell me in detail about the differences in each version.

He's 27 and there is no indication this is ever going to stop.

Covid sparked the same interest in my child, so it's now been 5 years. Flags, populations, average heights, number of languages spoken, countries, boundaries, war and political history. We had a flag themed birthday party in lockdown with games like flag bingo. Unfortunately, I've not retained much of the facts they've shared.

Geoguesser was a fun game. Any other recommendations? We got a vexillology activity book but they don't like drawing very much. I struggled to think of on theme gifts for birthdays and Christmas, what did your kids get?

I hate the term "special interest" though, especially when teamed with a wanky eye roll, it's so condescending and othering. The way it's shared and communicated can be different to allistics, but everyone has interests, favourites, hobbies... they give enjoyment and comfort.

DD's special interests is maths and timetables. From the moment you open your eyes in the morning 1000 maths questions are fired at you without a pause 🤨 It is exhausting. Sorry no tips OP but solidarity

Love this thread - my older brother shared this interest (still does tbh) and one of my first phrases was “blooming maps!” as I kept vainly tried to fold them away 😂

My son's first interest when he was younger was time. When things start, finish etc. He used to get extremely angry if programmes didn't start on time and wanted me to phone whichever tv channel it was. He was the first in his year at school to learn how to tell the time.

He moved onto football, stats, goals, players etc and is still on that at 26 years old. He knows every score of every game. He doesn't monologue as much these days but it still lurks occasionally.

I get this with pure gym. He's never been in one but knows where they're all located and keeps track of new openings. Apparently one down on Manchester is due to re-open after a re-fit 🙄

My husband was the same re the Titanic.

He is learning it at school. He is Year 9 (13) in an MS international school where they learn 2 languages to GCSE, so he knows a bit. Although at parents' evening the other week I was surprised as his French teacher said although his vocabulary retention is excellent (thanks photographic memory 😁), his grammar skills are actually poor. So something to work on.

Tbf the French is an easy obsession to feed - Netflix, books from the library, day trip to France for his birthday in April. Just incredibly wearing!

I’m finding this all really interesting. My 6 year old likes timelines so spends ages looking at lists of dates then writing them out so it could be an overview from prehistoric to now or the Tudors. He also measures time in how long it’s been since Mary Secole died.
He also likes making the calculator count up and letting me watch. 😁
He’s touched on countries, I think that’ll resurface. We’ve also had cranes, numberblocks and trees.
He’s happy to talk to himself about too!

Yes, I'd probably prefer "favourite topic/subject" or "area of expertise" as I think those are more accurate descriptions.

I absolutely love this thread.

How do you get something into classics??

We definitely need at least one flags/country meet up and one group trip to Belfast to the Titanic museum!

My 10 year old has ASD. He used the love info dumping (and still does 😂)

However, he now knows that people don’t want to be ‘talked at’ so he will keep things short and sweet or he will ask if the person is still interested, he also recognises that not everyone loves what he does and wants to hear about it all day! I think this is an important skill for him to have. I taught him around age 5 by choosing a subject I like (coronation street) that he has no interest in and talking at him about that every time he would go on, not picking up the social cues. We still have a giggle about it some 5 years later and he has much more awareness now.

I feel your pain, in our house it's public transport systems of the world. We're currently stuck on Hong Kong....

As DS has got older new interests have been added to the list, so there are some I can tolerate more than others, and I just try and focus on those....

Can also relate - my eldest is now a young adult and we have been through various interests over the years but he has pretty much settled down to Lord of the Rings, WW2 and anything military like tanks, guns, uniforms, and also space rockets.

My DS is 21 and has talked about cars since he could talk. Engines, models, makes he's obsessed and now he drives he has so many cars and projects. It's his whole entire life and he's happy as Larry.

So maybe your 6 year old will travel or love geography.. after almost 19 years of the same subject you have my sympathy!

globle-game.com/game

A game for the geography-loving kids. I am not good at it but enjoying slowly improving
my knowledge!