how to deal with obsessions (possible Aspergers)

[knat]

my dd (4) is being assessed at the moment and it has been indicated that she is on the autistic spectrum possibly Aspergers. She is completely obsessed with cats and dogs (always loved animals) but recently everything she does relates to cats and dogs. Her play (even if not specific animal play ie animal hospital) all relates to cats and dogs. The other day we were blowing bubbles and she said they were bubble pets and started "stroking" them . Its now got that she pretends shes a dog and gives herself a dog name. If she's hungry she says she needs a bone, if she needs the toilet she refers to it as her litter tray. I just wandered how i should deal with this. I understand that obsessions can be a safety net for the child and i dont want to take this away from her. However how much should i encourage when she talks like she's a dog!!! Should i just not comment either way? Any help would be appreciated.

On another note - we are thinking of getting a dog at the moment - not sure if this would compound the issue or help? (She's not aware we're thinking of getting one) Thanks

thanks pipin. She's not jut being a 4yr old it is linked to the autism. WE have investigated which breed would be best in terms of it will take anything! I'm still not sure about getting a dog but will keep it in the back of my mind and see how things go.

Good idea about using the animals to teach appropriate relationships etc. I'll try that!!!!

Obsessions come and go - one week everything revolves around a certain interest and the next they've moved on to something else. IMO it's not a good idea to try and stop an obsession outright, though you may need to find a suitable alternative to some that are socially inappropriate.

Obsessions are useful tools for parents to tap into. You can use them as reinforcers and gaining interest in teaching your child social skills. Often children with ASD can't access information that's being presented to them unless it's in the form of their interest. I've devised a whole anger management programme for my ds around Star Wars with great success, and recently he told me that new ideas can't get into his head unless they first go to the 'disguise room' in his brain to change into one of the characters from his interests.

I'd consider carefully about the dog. If her obsessions do change she might suddenly go off the idea and you'd be stuck with it.

thats brilliant karen - loved to have some idea of the anger management as my dd gets very angry. Think using her obsession to reinforce things is great - will have to get my thinking cap on. Am considering very carefully re dot but she has been obsessed with animals from a very early age so i think its something shes always interested in (but who knows!!!!)

Our anger management work was based on the 5-point scale. J's was based on Star Wars with Level 1 (calm) being represented by Yoda, colour coded pale green like Yoda's lightsabre. It went up through various characters and lightsabre colours to Anakin turning into Darth Vader (red/orange) at Level 5. J was able to relate to anger in this way because he had seen the characters in the film - he knew how calm and controlled Yoda was, he understood that Vader went bad because he gave in to the 'dark side' and lost control, he also understood that the younglings in the temple hadn't learned how to control The Force yet so they were likely to make mistakes... etc etc.

Once he learned how to identify his anger levels, we progressed to using a daily record of his highest level, with rewards for achieving the lowest. He's gone from having regular Level 4 and 5 meltdowns, four or five times a week and lasting a couple of hours each, to mostly 2s and 3s with the occasional blip (about once every four to six weeks) and over in 20 minutes.

Animals would be a great theme for anger management work. Eg a koala for Level 1, maybe a cow for L2 (they are usually calm but lose their temper occasionally), up to a shark for Level 5 (no control whatsoever, a killing machine).

Hope that's useful.

PS: I can email you a copy of our anger management chart if you'd be interested, might give you some ideas. Email me [email protected].

hi karen thanks - i've emailed you