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SD zoning out, repeating words, Behavioral or Neurological?

TheBrightSide's picture

Okay my steptalk family: I need some advice.

Our SD10 has just recently, in the last week or so (that I’ve noticed) started a behavior which I’m wondering if its normal or something more serious.

Some background.

SD10 does really well academically. With math and reading being her strongest subjects. She also draws really well and has a good sense of perspective in her drawings. She’s athletic. She’s been playing soccer for 5 years. On her team of 10 and 11 year old girls, she’s right in the middle. She’s also average height and weight. She’s very popular with her friends and outgoing.

Here’s the new behavior. We’ve noticed that she’ll see something on TV, a word or a number and she’ll zone out and quietly mumble a series of the numbers or words sometimes her fingers will move in a corresponding way.

Yesterday evening, we were at a friend’s house with her. Our friends have two daughters, one of whom plays soccer with SD10 and the two of them are great friends. We have their girls over for sleepovers and they have SD10 to their house.

At the end of the evening when it was time to go, SD10 and her friend were doing the usual huggy, huggy, dramatic “oh buddy, I’ll miss you…fake tears” (even though they’ll see each other for soccer practice the next day). Its sweet. After the usual dramatic goodbye routine, SD10 was putting her shoes on, her 10 y/o friend was sitting next to her with her arm around her and SD10 seemed to go into a trance and kept repeating “I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you, I’ll miss you” over and over in a complete monotone while staring in a zoned out way. I asked her to stop a couple of times, but she didn’t, then DH said “wholy, Rainman” in a bit of a louder voice then it snapped her out of it. (She had zoned out for maybe a minute total.)

This is the first time I’ve seen her zone out in front of a group of people. Was this just to get attention? I known her for 4 years. It’s just out of character for her. Sure, she’ll try to be funny or clever and she’s certainly outgoing and she’ll get attention this way, but this zoning out thing is new. Is this the beginning of something neurological? I’ve never had a 10 year old. I just don’t know if this is completely normal behavior. I’m concerned. I’ve googled autism, and tourettes, but it just doesn’t seem to fit. Part of me thinks that maybe she is aware of it and this is just a new “act”.

Thoughts?

foxxystep's picture

that sounds neurological, almost like a form of schizophrenia... its maybe worth checking out, especially since she is an intelligent child, and this behaviour is out of charachter. google catatonic schizophrenia.. hope it helps

keepinit2gether's picture

Have her checked for autism..its probably unlikely but some kids are so close to the spectrum that it goes unnoticed until things like that happen. Repeating words is a mental process. She is replaying the moment in her head and filing it away. Numbers and other things are usually repeated by our mind to store compare and process. She may just be processing out loud or being pulled into deep thoughts. the finger thing shes doing is why I said autism they call it a stereotypy which is hand flapping finger tapping or just a repeat of the same motions over and over.

She prob doesnt have autism but having a specialist who deals with autism check it out may be the quickest way to figuring it out because they are specifically trained to spot neuro based problems or behaviors.

I have worked with children with autism or on the spectrum. The spectrum is an imaginary line between normal and autistic. Kids on the spectrum are high functioning and appear to be normal until triggered or carefully observed. Some children also have stereotypy that allow them total memory recall. i have also worked with completely normal but beyond genius kids who go into a trance and repeat words or numbers over and over. They do it because they are having a visual thought of the word number or action. In the visual thought they are comparing calculating and storing the information for later use. Like a computer. Maybe this little girl has reached a point where this part of her brain has woken up and is analyzing information on a whole new level. Good luck my friend! Start with the pediatrician. If your worried about the trance find a trigger word like your hubby did. it has to be something that will make her restart a process or idea or access a memory. Say it loud and clear.

Another thing she may be doing is getting stuck in her mind cycle. She just cant stop thinking.