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Ripping up books, paper-in fact anything that can be ripped

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My twin diagnosed with Autism is ripping up paper, books (even though he loves reading books), etc, in fact if it can be ripped up he will). I am trying punishments, rewards, taking away stuff to prevent it being ripped (although due to having other kids I can't take everything out of shared areas such as the lounge) but nothing seems to work. He is 8 years old. Any advice?

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Hello

 

My ASD son used to do this. I got around this by having a box and put some papers, books etc into it and this is what he was allowed to rip up. This worked for him so you could maybe give it a try.

 

Take care

 

Forbsay

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Tricky, you have my sympathy >:D<<'> with other kids it is difficult, as you say, to remove all the paper/books etc, you dont say if this is a new habit or an old one, pray its just a phase! hope others are more helpful! Enid

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Sounds like a sensory stimuli and he is doing it to get stimulation, I would look at requesting friends or local services for old telephone directory books, and just let him rip, old news papers, cardboard, and different textured board, a brilliant book to recemmend that give more ideas on what else you could provide is a book called the Out of syncs child has fun, its got loads of sensory games, having different materials to play with that give sensory pleasure may also distract him, so having sand, water, clay, even mud if you dont mind the dirt, to explore with, many reasons he will seek this pleasure is to reduce anxieties, if your punishing him it will increase his anxiety and may do it in anger and become desruptive, its best to have planned and organised activities to give the child a sence of fun and pleasure without been in trouble.

 

Keep treasured books in a place he cant access them and laminate as many books as possible the onces you want to share with him, charity shops have many duplicate books that you could laminate and restructure into a bind.

 

Its difficult to ensure they dont access letters, important information but its best its in a high safe place.

 

JsMum

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I have the same thing. Actually both my younger two have a things for ripped paper although my daughter is by far the worst. Try the book "out of sync child" and "out of sync child has fun" there are loads of recomendations for sensory based activities that aim to give them the stimulation they need without destroying what they shouldn't. I have to say, that here, not much has worked, but all these things ever do it cut it down a bit. It's pretty hard to teach a child what is, and what isn't ok to rip. At one time, I said she could rip up junk mail and leaflets, but she couldn't distinguish. I have to get to the mail before she does! I bought her a ripping up paper bin to contain it. She ripped and ripped just to fill the bin, THEN emptied it out all over the place so she could start again. We now only have wallpaper in our hallway because she rips that. I can't say much else other than sympathise with you. I am now quite phobic of seeing little bits of ripped paper all the time. They just get everywhere, including the walls where she chews it up and spits it out over them. Nice spatter patterns she likes to make!!

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our little boy does the same thing he rips up news papers,books,wallpaper then he chews the paper to a pulp and spits it up the walls....charming habit.he also chews cables and wires,controlers for the tv and sky box,he also scrapes furniture where he is sitting with his nails and has chewed my coffee table.when left to his own devices he writes on the walls, furniture and books..it is infuriating but he cant help it we have realised it is a sensory thing and we are waiting for him to out grow it...lol..he has pica in that he mouths and chews everything and now keeps getting worms from school.i dont have advice ecept our babe is worse when he is concentrating on somthing or when he is bored.these are both his danger times.but we generally have to have a grown up with him at all times...which isnt easy..love noogsyxxxxxxx

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Hello

 

My ASD son used to do this. I got around this by having a box and put some papers, books etc into it and this is what he was allowed to rip up. This worked for him so you could maybe give it a try.

 

Take care

 

Forbsay

 

 

All ready tried that. Didn't make a difference for longer than about 12 hours.

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Sounds like a sensory stimuli and he is doing it to get stimulation, I would look at requesting friends or local services for old telephone directory books, and just let him rip, old news papers, cardboard, and different textured board, a brilliant book to recemmend that give more ideas on what else you could provide is a book called the Out of syncs child has fun, its got loads of sensory games, having different materials to play with that give sensory pleasure may also distract him, so having sand, water, clay, even mud if you dont mind the dirt, to explore with, many reasons he will seek this pleasure is to reduce anxieties, if your punishing him it will increase his anxiety and may do it in anger and become desruptive, its best to have planned and organised activities to give the child a sence of fun and pleasure without been in trouble.

 

Keep treasured books in a place he cant access them and laminate as many books as possible the onces you want to share with him, charity shops have many duplicate books that you could laminate and restructure into a bind.

 

Its difficult to ensure they dont access letters, important information but its best its in a high safe place.

 

JsMum

 

I can't put everything out of his reach because he has a twin brother and an 11 year old brother who need to be able to access shared books and their stuff.

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I have the same thing. Actually both my younger two have a things for ripped paper although my daughter is by far the worst. Try the book "out of sync child" and "out of sync child has fun" there are loads of recomendations for sensory based activities that aim to give them the stimulation they need without destroying what they shouldn't. I have to say, that here, not much has worked, but all these things ever do it cut it down a bit. It's pretty hard to teach a child what is, and what isn't ok to rip. At one time, I said she could rip up junk mail and leaflets, but she couldn't distinguish. I have to get to the mail before she does! I bought her a ripping up paper bin to contain it. She ripped and ripped just to fill the bin, THEN emptied it out all over the place so she could start again. We now only have wallpaper in our hallway because she rips that. I can't say much else other than sympathise with you. I am now quite phobic of seeing little bits of ripped paper all the time. They just get everywhere, including the walls where she chews it up and spits it out over them. Nice spatter patterns she likes to make!!

 

Luke doesn't chew them. He plays with them in his imaginary stories. They represent characters. We've tried to replace the paper with toys like plastic people but unfortunately that didn't help. I haven't seen the book the Out of Sync Child. Do you know where it is sold?

Edited by aspiemum2twinsplus1

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our little boy does the same thing he rips up news papers,books,wallpaper then he chews the paper to a pulp and spits it up the walls....charming habit.he also chews cables and wires,controlers for the tv and sky box,he also scrapes furniture where he is sitting with his nails and has chewed my coffee table.when left to his own devices he writes on the walls, furniture and books..it is infuriating but he cant help it we have realised it is a sensory thing and we are waiting for him to out grow it...lol..he has pica in that he mouths and chews everything and now keeps getting worms from school.i dont have advice ecept our babe is worse when he is concentrating on somthing or when he is bored.these are both his danger times.but we generally have to have a grown up with him at all times...which isnt easy..love noogsyxxxxxxx

 

 

He doesn't write on walls now but did for a long while. His twin brother was more of a chewer. His twin brother is waiting for testing for ASDs and is diagnosed with ADHD and we're not sure at present if he (the twin) has merely characteristics but not enough for a diagnosis or if he has an ASD. The one who's doing the ripping up is diagnosed with Autism and is high functioning but due to his lack of cooperation with that bit of the testing it isn't in his diagnosis. The ripping up is causing real problems for the twin brother and big brother because he sneaks shared books into his room when we are not looking and rips them up- stuff like strategy guides which they use for their games and need to be able to access and even if they didn't I can't fit them all in my wardrobe and we haven't enough high shelves. I'm a single mum so I cannot watch him every second.

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My DD used to do this as well, and if you search I posted a thread about this very thing a few years ago, which might have some other suggestions which would work for your son.

 

What didn't work for us was the idea that she should be given a supply of paper to rip up. Her level of understanding was such that she couldn't differentiate between allowed and forbidden types of paper, and how can you allow her to rip in some circumstances and then tell her off for doing it in others?

 

We also have an NT child who is only a year older than our DD and he was getting upset with his books being destroyed as were we. What we did was to buy the bookcases from Ikea (think they are called Billy) which have doors on them and on each door we fitted a little hasp and hook which we secured with a combination padlock (for suitcases). We told our DS the combination and reminded him to put his books away and lock the bookcase when he was finished with them. After a few years of doing this, we are now able to leave our books out on open bookcases as the habit has been broken. Very very occasionally she might rip up a comic or one of her own books but it is very rare for her now to touch anyone else's books or papers.

 

The out of synch books are available on Amazon, and are very good for lots of things like this. The author is Carole Kranovitch. Hth

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