Question
I have a 7 year old son. He was diagnosed with high functioning autism at 4 mainly due to social behaviors. He mainly struggles with controlling his emotions. For example, he has trouble getting his words out, so he resorts to screaming if a peer doesn't listen to him or he feels unheard. Lately when he gets in trouble he has been saying things like "I'm so dumb!" "No body likes me." "I'm so stupid," and stuff like that. It makes me very sad but I don't know how to react to it. I'm not sure if he really feels that way, if he's just talking out loud like a self-punishment kind of thing. How should I react to this?
