Talking and laughing...to himself

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Do you have similar experiences with your aspies?Our son lately walks around the house talking quietly to himself. sometimes you can see that it is something troubleing him from school, sometimes he analyzes a football game he saw on TV...
What do you if you have similar situation?
All you dear people from Wrong planet, you are the best friends one can imagine!! !
Love mamamoo

It sounds like he is just being introspective. I do the same thing myself. Does it worry you?

My son does that, sometimes just talking and analyzing, but mostly while he's pacing, fantasy role playing. A little disconcerting to hear, out of the blue, a shouted "drop that weapon or I'll shoot!" but one gets used to it.

I wonder if there is any connection to thinking in pictures, instead of thinking in words?

I think that may be part of it. I do tend to 'rehearse' things that I am thinking, figuring out how to say it and so forth. You would be surprised how many of my conversations are pre-planned and pre-practiced. It just helps with figuring out how to say things, and what to say, and how to say it. So when you actually get into a similar situation, you aren't stumbling for words.

Perhaps people who do not struggle with words as much do not have the need to practice the art of conversing with proper words/tone/inflection/etc.

And, of course, talking to yourself helps you to organize the information in your head into a new format. And by having the information stored in multiple formats, it helps you to remember, and understand it better.

I think for younger kids, mamamoo, I forget how old your son is, its a lack of recognition that other people can actually hear what they are saying and/or part of an impulse control issue. All of us have a running commentary going on in our minds all the time, most of us just limit it so it stays inside our heads where other people can't hear it.

My son talks to himself too, he's 5. As DW said, sometimes its his fantasy world going on, sometimes its repeating lines from movies, books, etc. and sometimes I think re-hashing things he has heard throughout the day. I mostly ignore it unless it sounds like he is distressed then I might ask if he is upset about something.

I still do that and I'm 30. It's just a way of working/sorting things out.

One of those "Did I say that out loud" kind of things.

Me, too. Or I'll do it in my head, but my face and hands will clearly show all the expressions - I talk with my hands a lot. My husband often leans over to me in the car when I do this (I'm totally silent) and whispers "Who are you arguing with?"

I imagine to the rest of the world I might look bizarre. I don't generally want someone to intervene, as I'm usually going over a fairly complex situation and explaining it would take too long.

Thats my son! Does he make sound effects too? Bombs exploding, ect? My son calls it "Playing in my head". He typically paces back and forth when he is doing this and throws his arms around. Its mainly what he does in the yard or in his room but he does like to be alone now that he is older. I have had, in the past, family members who basically told me that he looked weird and I should teach him not to do that. I got angry and said that is what they did to me and someones going to call him weird no matter what so he can play in his head in his yard if he wants to.
He also likes it that he found that I also "play in my head"....I still make gestures, smile, laugh and Ive even cried because one of my characters died but I dont talk anymore as mentioned above. I think I am a visual thinker but I can also write and Ive been told Im very good at it so I dont know if that still qualifies me as a visual thinker....maybe Im a visual word cross type thinker . Its weird because when my stories are in my head they play like movies but when I start writing them I think of more dialog. I actually have to go back and fill in the visual parts of my stories sometimes after I pound all the dialog out.

When I am "daydreaming" or whatever you want to call it I still laugh...as I posted but I dont talk anymore because people made fun of me.....and its not running commentary, I actually still do that out loud and Im 43! People always think Im talking to them and I say "Im talking to me not you".....then I get mad when people arent listening to me when I am talking to them so I drive my husband nuts. We always say either he really loves me or hes just completely crazy !

I think this is probably fairly common. People with AS are rather introverted as far as thoughts go and most probably ruminate on various things, playing out scenarios of the past or potential scenarios of the future in their head to better process them and understand the situation. He's likely thinking of something funny when he laughs.

What's the problem?

I talk to myself a lot, also with the hand gestures as mentioned before. I don't even really know why. A lot of the time, I'm going over the day or pre-planning conversations, or just hopping on my train of thought and seeing where it will take me. I mostly do it in relative privacy, though.

As far as your son is concerned, I actually thought all young kids do that. I don't really see a problem. You could actually use it as a way to get him to talk. If he has his full train of thought out in the open, it's like him talking to you, and you can just step in whenever needed. Otherwise, I guess I would only ask something if you can hear that he's upset.

i do this too; there is always a livid conversation going on in my mind, including hand gestures and the like.
luckily, i usually manage to contain it to my mind (including the movements), but sometimes it gets out.
especially when i (think i) am alone, i move my mouth to the talk, even whisper the conversation; this gets awkward if there happens to be someone i didn't notice.
it gets even weirder still becouse this internal conversation is, usually, in english, which is not my native language...

Yep, sound effects, too.

There was a time we tried to squash it, he's up and over the furniture and everyting, but then I realized it might be self-calming, and experimented with actually encouraging it. Bingo, less meltdowns. The whole pacing-talking combination for him is something he actually needs to do, not just some odd habit. We did teach him time and place, however. Maybe this variation works in a way similar to the way dreams do?

yes, pacing talking and making other people's voices. She's 8 and her doc said it's normal

Youngest does it a lot, running around the living room and making proclamations.

"I Iron Man!" is the big one right now, but we get random cries of "Fire!" quite often as well. Eldest just runs back and forth for fifteen minutes or so, which for some reason puts my teeth on edge. I'm not bothering him about it any longer; it's what he needs. I do bug him to pick up the Legos before he starts, to stave off the otherwise inevitable tears, but without much success.