Ep 8: Repetitive Behavior and Restricted Interests: Superpower and Coping Mechanism for the Neurodiverse

You Don’t Want a Hug, Right? The Hilarity and the Hard of Raising Humans with Neurodiversity

Many neurodiverse people have special interests and engage in repetitive behaviors. These interests are a crucial way for our kids to connect with others. But sometimes their interests and behaviors can be limiting, especially in school or other social settings.

In today’s episode, we talk about why neurodiverse kids engage in special interests and repetitive behaviors with such intensity, how it can become problematic in their everyday lives, and how we can use those interests to motivate our kids to engage with the world in new ways. Plus, we’re introducing our new “What the What” segment and we hope you enjoy it.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

[09:00] People with neurodiversity engage in special interests and repetitive behaviors with high intensity for several reasons

[20:03] How this can become really problematic when they're unable to stop the interest independently

[31:26] Strategies to identify the function of the repetitive behavior and how we can use them as a motivator to help our kids engage with the world socially

[48:00] Our new What the What segment that will recap each episode

[50:10] The Last Word from our kids about their first special interests

Get full show notes and the episode transcript: https://www.youdontwantahug.com/post/ep-8-repetitive-behavior-and-restricted-interests-superpower-and-coping-mechanism-for-our-kids

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