What happened during the England game

Here are a few examples of what I heard:

"He's not covering the post."

"Shhh."

"Hype... Popcorn"

"Cap, cover the perimeter"

"Oh.. that was close."

"Yyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssss! Get in!"

(several fist pumps, happy dance)

"And it's lights out and away they go."

"Where was that going?"

"Oh that's a penalty!"

"And Hamilton's on the grass, and Hamilton's had a massive crash."

(excessive jumping)

"Come on England."

"And both Mercedes are out in the first lap."

"Cap, we have to work as a team."

Err.. wait a minute.. did you catch those last two? Any real sports fan, myself not included, might have picked up on it a bit earlier.  Generally Captain's don't 'cover the perimeter', there's no player called Hamilton, who would have the nerves to eat popcorn and what's that about 'light's out'?

Whereas the 'Shhhh' comment was obviously directed at me and several comments were directed at the TV, the remaining few were something else entirely - our son Anthony, scripting.

Scripting is a easy to remember autism term.  It's the repeating of words, quite often 'scripts' from television or other media. It's similar to, but I think in my kids different from, their presentation of echolalia, where they 'echo' words.  Both our autistic boys developed echolalia as a way of responding to a communication.  For example:

"David, would you like an apple or a pear?" and David says "Pear"

Sometimes David may actually want a pear, other times he just echoes that last word he heard because he knows if he responds he'll get something to eat.

Anthony's scripting isn't this kind of response.  His scripting is a method of stimming. Stimming is short for "self stimulatory behaviour".  In effect here, Anthony is really excited about watching the football match and he seeks to activate his senses as a way of coping with how he feels.

He repeats short snippets from areas of special interest including Avengers and from recent Grand Prix races. He also jumps about to get this feeling too and will often lately pull in another of his interests - Fortnite emotes. Without his scripting and jumping he feels at a loose end.. wrong.  It's a bit like the feeling you need to have a hug when your are sad I guess. David often stims by spinning round and shaking his hands.

During the football match, while my hubby is doing a 'happy dance' because England have scored, Anthony is saying weird out of context stuff and possibly doing one of his favourite Fortnite: Battle Royale dances (currently either Squad Kick or Groove Jam I think) because that is the way he shows he is really excited to watch the game!

Sometimes scripting can cause Anthony to be distracted like when he is trying to do his homework,  But, all in all, the things I heard during the last England game told me that my guys were just having a good time.. and that's pretty cool!

Links
Our blog - I'm so happy my son has echolalia
Our blog - Autism obsessions in actions

External
Ambitious About Autism - Repetitive behaviours and stimming