Hitting or smacking yourself in the head?

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miulloj
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13 Sep 2011, 11:15 am

angelbear wrote:
Thanks everyone....Your input is very helpful. From what I have observed (as usual with my son) is that it is a combination of things that are causing him to do it, which makes it hard to pinpoint and hard to come up with a solution. But just reading the posts helps me to understand and handle it a little better with my son. I hope this doesn't become a problem at school this year as he just started doing it the last couple of weeks of school last year, but has really been doing it alot all summer. I guess we shall soon find out.


Yes, my son (Autism) is 6 and does this. He will be 7 soon. He displays very similarly as your's both in action and verbally. He shows that he is self aware of it but I can also see that he cannot stop himself sometimes. He does try hitting his chest and his thigh to redirect. It seems to have begun in June of this year. The school, ABA, therapeutic babysitters, OT, SLP are all aware of it so we are all keeping tabs on it. There is some indication in some of the research that I have done it could be seizure related but who knows. Every time we take him to the neurologist nothing significant shows on the EEG.

I do gain some insight and understanding from the posts that other ASD folks have placed here and appreciate your input as you can express yourselves more thoroughly and descriptively than my son can as yet. He too is very bright but right now is not quite capable of continuous, natural conversation. It looks like with a lot of intervention he will get there though.



kx250rider
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13 Sep 2011, 12:10 pm

That's something that appears to be a common thing among Asperger's/Autism. There are various degrees of it, and in my case, it's more of just a wince or grimace; stopping short of actually whacking myself. Still looks bizarre though. Regarding your son, (and I'm not an expert), I'd recommend discussing the head hitting with someone qualified. It seems to be something that is hard to stop or control, based on what I've read, but as with most anything else, I am sure there is a way to work on it for the better.

BTW: Admitting to yourself that he could be on the Spectrum, was your most difficult thing to do in this situation... You did it and that was the best thing you could do! I see SO many parents completely denying that any such thing could touch THEIR bloodline, and that's a tragedy when the poor kid is treated as NT, and is being tortured by NT surroundings. You've already opened the door to a much better life for your son and your whole family, in my opinion!

Charles



loobyloukitty
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13 Sep 2011, 12:50 pm

i used to bang myself against the wall and the bed which did hurt so dont try this at home



liveandletdie
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13 Sep 2011, 2:32 pm

when i was a kid I would put holes in the wall with my head =/ and spash things into my head or just my fist.

now that im an adult i only hit myself in the head if i am extremely stressed and i only do it when nobody is watching.

i enjoy tapping my thumb on my head as well as rubbing my head but that's more of a stim.


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