Going out

[Amanda32]

How many of you have had to deal with odd behaviour when out with your child?..I know kids will be kids but I went out today and he kept climbing shop windows, very high ones too and all of a sudden he started to act like an ape crawling and hoping like one more an less. Then he went on the floor and just crawled and everyone and believe me were staring. We went into a shop and he started to open a toy gun and as I was busy sorting myself out at the checkout the lady kept telling him not to touch and all he said was he wanted to try it first to see what it did, I was waiting for him to get very rude as hes been quite bad lately. Sorry to go on yet again but when he does odd things like acting like an ape, he does funny body movements and he does get attention when he does this. He's 9 and doing the best I can with odd behaviour when out in public but its a nightmare because I cant always be calm.

 

Take care

Amanda

Edited September 9, 2005 by Amanda32

[Brook]

Oh yes, can relate to this

 

It does depend alot on the kind of environment we are in, if its busy and crowded my son will start to stim to try and drown out the unwanted stimuli, if this goes to extremes his behaviour can rapidly deteriorate, he is sensitive to certain smells, sounds and people talking loudly.

 

Sometimes I think it's a case of my son does not know what he is expected to do in certain situations, therefore I try to direct him into what he should be doing, ie..pushing the shopping trolley and if he deviates and starts sprawling out on the shop floor, I remind him of what he should be doing. I never stop him stimming, (jumping from one foot to the other, often making a certain noise through gritted teeth), as this is his way of coping, but I do try to focus him on doing something inparticular.

 

Brook

Edited September 10, 2005 by Brook

[loulou]

Hi Amanda,

 

Kai (7) often acts strange when we're out too. He's taken to hissing at people when they look at him or talk to him. I asked him why he does it and he says "To get them away". He often crawls around on the floor and makes strange noises. It is embarassing, but i've now decided that i don't care who's looking, or what they think.

 

Yesterday, i took him out for school shoes (major stress!) and a lady gave him a balloon. He then spent the rest of the time running around the shops spinning the balloon over his head like crazy, totally oblivious to the fact that he was whacking people with it!

 

I think alot of his behaviour is down to stress. And also, like Brook said, our children don't know how to behave in these situations.

 

Hold your head high!

 

Loulou x

[MelowMeldrew]

To many of our kids shopping provides too much stimulation and they stress out, as stated before mine simply would not GO out to shops, or if we insisted would rapidly deteriorate and force a return home. He seems more willing to go out now, but likes to throw things around the shop, pull labels off (!), or stand outside the shop and kick and bang the glass front with his fists and feet. At this time, I cannot ever see him leaving the house on his own, and he still hasn't attempted to play normally with one other child, one on one. Nearest he gets is (Via supervision), he will approach a younger child (Never an older one or one his age), and attempt to hit them or bully them. He has a fixation with young children, and small animals who he tries to hurt, with older children he will adopt a totally passive stance, stare at the floor and won't speak or walk away from them.