rag2177

Hi sbechtel Thanks for your reply. As far as I'm aware this is the only "habit" my son has and he doesn't have any tics either. However, he also talks constantly and at some speed! (not during lessons as he always listens very intently) I think this might contribute to him being isolated from his peers at school as I don't think other children particularly appreciate his constant chattering. Since he has told me about his counting he seems to be doing it more (or maybe I'm just noticing it more now) but it does concern me that this could become a problem and cause him to be overly distracted with counting. I recently went to parents evening at school and the only complaint his teacher had was that he sometimes gets distracted when thery're working independantly, not by other people but by himself (he actually wiggled his fingers when he said this as if demonstrating what he meant). When I came home it suddently dawned on me that this "distraction" is probably my son counting, as he always moves his fingers or hands when he's doing it. I too am against using any kind of medication for this but know that he cannot stop it or even try and do it less- as he said "I can't not do it". I haven't mentioned it to the doctor yet but think I probably should, maybe I should also tell his teacher what is going on and then he watch and see if he thinks its interfering with his concentration in lessons. Does your sons school know?

Hi all, Only last night my son (he's 8) told me he thought was a bit "weird", he was laughing about it so I was not too concerned. When I asked him why he told me that he always counts the letters in words to see if their an odd or even number. He also said he has a method to work this out quickly, by moving his hand up and down. I reassured him that we all have habits that we might think are a bit "weird" and that this is nothing to worry about: because we all think some of the things we do are weird we never say anything, so we never know how common it is. As soon as he told me about this I realised he has been doing it for ages, I don't know exactly when it started but I have been aware of him really concentrating on other peoples talk and quietly sounding the letters out for a good few years, but whenever I've asked him what he's doing he's never told me . Anyway, because of this revelation I thought I'd have a look on the internet today and see if there was any info about this - lo and behold I found this forum. Although I wasn't too concerned I feel reassured to know that so many other people do this and that it doesn't affect their lives too much. He is incredibly bright but I have been worried about him being rather isolated. He does have friends and is happy at school, but he doesn't have any really good friends and hasn't been invited to a birthday party for over 3 years now. When he does have people round to play he is always talking; he has a really busy mind and, although I try and get him to "slow down" and give other people room to talk, he can't help it. He has also been bullied in the past and I think his enthusiasm for the smallest things, his high emotions, his constant talking and wanting to be involved might have caused him to be targeted. I love these qualities and think they make him unique and incredbly special but I do worry that they might partly cause his isolation. Each time he tells me about some "new" behaviour I start wandering if he actually has a medical condition that might be contributing to his troubles and if there is anything better we could be doing. Could his other "problems" be related to OCD? If anyone could give any advice or comment then please do, Thanks