My step-son has been diagnosed with Level One Autism. Since he was little, I always felt that something was different with him. He finally has a real diagnosis from a Psychologsit after being misdiagnosed 2 times. I am very confident in this diagnosis. I mentioned Autism to our whole family when he was about 5 and everyone thought I was crazy! Well now here we are.
He has always had a really difficult time at school (beind disruptive, defiant, getting into trouble, etc). He is now in 4th grade and honestly, the year has started off great. Which I am very surprised about.
Yesterday he came home and I could tell something was wrong. He admitted to me that he got a "think time slip" for being asked multiple times to stop disrupting the teacher. I asked him multiple times if that is all that happened and he said "yes". I knew something wasn't right. While we were all at the Halloween store, I got an email from his teacher and it read:
Mrs. Beck,
Today Jeremy had an incident that we felt we should let you know about. Jeremy started the day out well, but about 30 minutes prior to lunch, right at the end of Writing Workshop, things went horribly bad. Jeremy was being disruptive and then defiant to the teacher, Miss Grant, when told to stop. When he was told to return to his seat, he threw his writing book against the wall. Jeremy was then asked to come to the carpet to participate in math, but once again was being defiant and disruptive. Jeremy went back to his seat and continued this behavior, so he was sent to our buddy room to take a break and cool down. While trying to discuss what had happened before lunch Jeremy was not responsive, leading the counselor to get involved. Once he visited with our counselor and ate some lunch, Jeremy returned to the class during P.E. and then was able to have a good second half to his day.
He was never able to explain to any of us what triggered this behavior. I was out of the classroom when all this was happening, so maybe it had to do with Miss Grant being in charge. None of us know. He has been pretty good when she’s been teaching, prior to today.
If you have any insight for us, please let us know.
My son did not tell me any of this and when I confronted him about it, he shut down. He was super mad and being so mean to me like it was my fault he got in trouble. I asked him if he was mad becuase of the way he acted or getting introuble and he said getting in trouble. He tells me he never thinks about the consequences of his actions and he doesn't ever feel bad about things he does. He just never wants to get in trouble. So he lies.
A few weeks ago I got a text message from the neighbor saying her son came home and told her that my son was teasing him about a girl he had a crush on and he was telling the neighbor child that him and this girl were going to have sex!!! (I have never even spoken to my child about sex and he does not watch TV unsupervised or have access to any internet). I talked to my son about it and he swears up and down that he did not say that and that he said they were going to have a baby. I gave him about 10 chances for him to tell the truth and he stood by his word. When I spoke to the neighbor about what my son told me, her kiddo told me that was not true and he WAS saying him and another girl were going to have sex. When I confronted my son with the evidence, he finally admitted to the truth..
This type of stuff has been happening for the past 4 years. I don't know how to teach my child that lying is not ok. Punishment doesn't seem to help (if it does, it's only for a few weeks).
Can anyone give me any advice? Does your child with autism do this too?