Ok, I don't know any other way to describe what I am dealing with other than looping conversations. I imagine it likely is due to the Aspergers traits in my 13-year-old (as well as his dad), but I find that once we are on a topic, it is like there is this path with landmarks, and we have to travel down the entire path, hitting each landmark, before we can move on to a new topic. If you know what I'm talking about, how do you deal with it - derail it so that the conversation can become organic and new?
For example, if I mention a news article I read about Mars, the topic is wrestled away from that article to the larger topic of Mars, which then must lead to specific facts about Mars, an interesting YouTube video showing the Mars Rover, then on to manned missions to Mars, then on to the need to carry resources from a planet with resources to a planet without natural resources needed for survival, and then to the weight of water and how much water would be needed for a manned flight to Mars, and then how to create water, and then on to ... and this same conversation with these same facts must happen every time something is mentioned about Mars. It isn't organic or new - it is the same content almost verbatim every time.
If I try to turn the topic back to the article, it is like I didn't even say anything. It has to go back to the part of the loop where I stopped it, and it must go all the way to the end before we can discuss anything else.
I know if this is driving me insane at home, and if I'm having no luck switching things up, that teachers and friends are dealing with the same thing. Pretty soon, you just "don't go there" and stop communicating. If there are techniques I can teach my son or learn myself to help prevent this looping, I am game.
Suggestions?
