Conversations with himself!!

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He could be experiencing delayed echolalia....recalling entire conversations that were had around him or on television shows.

My son does this and alters his voice to reflect another speaker. We love it because he did not speak for years. He can recall conversations that were had months and sometimes years ago.

Or your son could just be really creative!

My 4 1/2 year old son does this quite often as well. It seems to occur most often when he's experiencing sensory issues. For example, we went swimming yesterday. The pool was full = lots of people, lots of noise. DS looked a little overwhelmed, but I could see that he was talking to himself (most likely about numbers), and it provided him with a method of coping with the sensory overload. I'm grateful that he's found a way to cope...even though it may seem a little strange to other people

i do that alot when i'm under stress, and i'm supposedly NT

I did it all the time was I was a kid. I still do it now (not as much), although I try to limit it when I am around other people.

I do that sometimes. I find it helps me to concentrate on an issue and make better decisions (well, faster decisions at any rate).

What irritates me is that some shrinks falsely assume that talking to yourself is a sign of schizophrenia...its not.

The voices in schizophrenia are uncontrollable.

In aspie kids its more like a fantasy or simulation.

I can try to explain to you what the inside of my own head is like.... perhaps that will help.

Picture a mirror, which has been shattered into five pieces. The pieces are still bound together by the frame, so none fall out... but nevertheless, it is shattered into five distinct parts.

Perhaps he is the same?

I devoloped that later in life -- around 15 and knew to do it only in my mind.

-it means he has learnt some adult traits and is using them , but did not learn about keeping it to himself....or he just may not care

today I use this as a 'teaching aid' --oh teachers do it all the time, asking the class and waiting for the respoce(with theclass thinking it's rhetorical)

different voice - yes.... guess where he learnt it from - TV!

I am pretty sure when I first started doing it it was the same voice, same character, same tone, same context.... I think I started copying TV though .. idiots like Joey off of friends , those character driven ecentrics. I think subconsciencouly I wanted to copy the eccentric characters embodied on TV, and have 'learnt' to mimmick their traits. I have now gone one step higher, where I now occasionally and indirecly accidently start playing out social sceanarios in my head, and I will change the voice of the answers by the other person, and sometimes confuse which voice was the question asker and responder in longer conversations.

-I have heard that NT's talk to themselves in their head,,, but they usually are talking in thier own voice when it's about them , and not even construct the phrase if it is not themselves. - ie, an AS will not only have the conscience talking to them, but they will construct thier thought process as verbal conversations.....

eg. NT buying milk when driving home from work.... "I have to buy milk on the way home" will usually get truncated too "I have to buy Milk" or "the mrs wants me to buy milk"
AS buying milk ====''''''''==== ......"Should I buy Milk"/ans/"Yes I will" - extrapolated "I think I should buy milk, should I buy milk, nah I'l get it tommorow, Oh the cat, yeah allright I think I should buy milk the cat needs it, and I could do with some for my crunchie oo's, ahh I hate crunchi oo' I'll just get some bacon and eggs" - the milk never gets bought.

Hello,
My eight year old daughter who is diagnosed with asperger talks to herself a lot. She doesn´t always use different voices in questions and answers but it happens. I get the feeling she deals with things that has happened during the day in this way. Sometimes during these talks she uses dolls, sometimes imaginary friends but sometimes just talks. She gets upset if I interupt her but often I have to ask her if she is talking to me or not. I am used to this now but I still get confused from it at times and don´t know if she is waiting for an answer from me.

Maybe your son is also just trying to sort though the events of his day in this manner? Try not to worry too much or make a big issue out of it. Maybe he can explain to you what he is doing if you ask him when he is not doing it so he doesn´t feel selfconsious.
My daughter cannot really explain it, she just calls it playing, and she is completely unaware that it makes people look at her when she does it on busses and trains.

I would be very intrested to hear if your son has another explanation, I would love to get a better understanding for my daughter. Maybe I wasn´t any help to you, but atleast you can know that you are not alone in your worries.

Take care