He'd Like 12 hours on the computer.....

[TheRealMrsF]

Feeling crap again...Tom has been on the PC from 7 till about 1pm and if i hadn't get him off he'd be on there solid till at least 10pm......

OK...he has Asperger's Syndrome...and his 'interest' is computers...playstations etc- so if he's not doing 1 he's doing the other.

Sometimes.... i just accept it and potter around doing my own thing...then other days (like today) i feel very concious that he's on it too much (though for him enough is never enough)

Then i think of my NT nephew who at 13 is playing football for the local team or school EVERY day and in the summer is out from 8-8 playing football....and then the kids i see riding bikes for hours on end....and then yet agin i get the feelings that IF i stop him doing what he enjoys...then thats like taking these kids bikes away...or banning football.

basically...AS means my son is happy doing what he enjoys...and surely THAT is what is important....yet i feel i should stop him!

Our PC is in the main living area of the house- so he's not isolate....and him and Leigh frequently exchange dialogues about playstion (Leigh's into that currently) and Computer Music....and i potter around encouraging them to talk to ME!!!!!!!

Please can someone else admit that if not stopped...their child/teenager is doing the same?????

Any parents of 'normal' kids welcome too... maybe some kids just love computers and will be sat at them all day ....

but if you are a parent (and gasping in horror ! at the fact that i allow such behaviour!)of an 'outdoor' child who appears to lead a fulfilled and happy existance doing may things...please understand that for my Autistic son's to do what your child does naturally and effortlessly would require my full on assistance...and i have 3 boys to share my time with....and much as i'd love to engage and interact with them 24/7...i do have myself and my home to think of!!!!

MrsF! I think we must be clones!

WRONG!!!!!

We KNOW we ARE!!!!!

Night NIGHT CT/BH!!! XXX

'Night, MrsF.

Did anyone else see the bit about computer games on 'Child of Our Time' recently? There was a boy (NT) who was about 5 who played for hours every day. They tested him and discovered he had advanced skills for his age, I think it was things like hand-to-eye co-ordination and planning ahead/problem solving.

I comfort myself with this thought when ds, age 3, has been on the CBeebies website for 4 hours. He gets furious when I insist on switching it off. It's got to the stage now where I don't plug the cables in at the back and tell him that it's broken . CT, our ds-es sound so similar!

I know, I was a bit shocked tbh, he took to it instantly . I reckon it might be connected to being a 'visual learner', it just seems to make sense to him.

It looks like we may end up going through it all over again soon. Ds2 is just itching to get his little paws on the computer mouse. He sometimes has a sneaky turn when ds1 has wandered off to do something else.

Becca - If it's any consolation, ds1's computer skills turned out to be really useful when he started school. They use the computer to do exercises with reading maths etc. At the time ds1 couldn't even hold a pencil, let alone write, but on the computer he could happily type away. A lot of the children needed time to get used to using a mouse and keyboard but ds1 was able to get straight on to whatever exercise he had been set. I just knew that those hours of typing in cheat codes and re-arranging the desktop hadn't gone to waste!

Oh MrsF good luck to your son if he has found something he truly enjoys doing in life.

Ds's vehicular obsession continues with car racing games on Playstation2 but, and it is a big but, he is not confident in his abilities so insists that dh does the actual driving while ds stands around telling him where he is going wrong! I have no idea how they get on as it bores me to tears and leave the room to do my stuff.