Gah some advice please!

[WireCat]

My son is 5, diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay.

I don't know what to do about this problem my son has at the moment. He will say something. "Look at my spiderman" I will reply "that's a lovely Spider-Man" he will reply. "Don't like that's a lovely Spider-Man"
He will ask for some food. Give him said food. He will say don't like said food. Put it down, pick it up and have it quite happily.
But it's the speech thing that's wearing me out. He will say "don't like...." To whatever is replied to him. And I can't ignore this as he must says it louder and louder till I say "ok, sorry, you don't like....it doesn't matter"
It is CONSTANT.
He still doesn't converse. Everything he says is just a statement iyswim.
He is having dreadful meltdowns as well. And he never ever stops. I actually don't know when he would go to sleep if I didn't actually physically make him go to bed.

Thank you x

My ds used to find it comforting when he always got the same response to things. I think it was the idea of having a tiny bit of control in his world.

I will freely admit though that it drove me up the wall sometimes. We eventually gave up watching any TV programmes that featured clapping from the audience because ds insisted that we should all clap along too. An RSI-inducing episode of "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" (back in its heyday) was the final straw.

The only comfort I can offer is that it really did get better.

Mines wonderful but 'No' comes out before the question has even been asked. He knows he's doing it but can't seem to help himself. Just try and look on the bright side we try and find fun in everything.

My DS is the same age and does this too!
Nice to hear that it does get better with time - thank you for this thread!