Currently he's playing a round of Angry Birds (With "In the Hall of the Mountain King" playing in the background of course) & barely stops to take a breath:
Oh I beat Darth Vadar bird
Now onto Tatooine
There we go
that's where most of the birds destroyed from only just two
Now onto Hoth
take that birds
Now this boss has the sort of dragons
but the Darth Vadar one for this is actually a giant version
I'm versing these dragons
Oh I just arrived at the boss and I've got one more bird left
There's two enemies left
I need to get them in perfect position
Oh I missed the boss
I'll have to re-do the level
Three birds left
No two birds left
and three enemies
Ohhhhhh!
I only just missed one, one enemy
Four more enemies one bird
Ohhh! I did the same thing again, missed an enemy
BOOM
Took out three enemies with TNT
Ok, final lot
Is the boss bird there?
Yep
Two more birds, five more enemies
Ooooh, I took out most of them with *A* bird
Now I just have to get the rest of them done
Then I'll have defeated the level
He'd be mighty unimpressed if he knew I was typing as he talked just now, but yeah, you get my drift.... it goes on... and on.... and on... and on.
For the longest time it drove me completely insane not being able to get Monkey Man to stop talking. He talks far more than any of my other kids! He also doesn't take any notice as to whether the person he's "talking at" is listening or not. If you don't reply, he just keep going until he asks a question of you - at which point he'll ask repeatedly until you answer, then go right back to his monologue.
Because of this, after a time it became easier and easier to just ignore his prattling and shut it out... except you'd come completely undone when he asked that question and you had no idea what you were responding about. So I'm having to work on finding the balance between not only actively listening to what he is saying and knowing when he needs to just be allowed to talk for the sake of talking & doesn't actually need an audience. As well as teaching him when he needs to be quiet and how to do activities without needing to describe every single detail of what is going on.
When he asks to do a particular task, be it playing a card game, using the iPad or other solitary activity, I'll often say yes, but put guidelines on what is required in order for him to use whatever he has asked for.
They're usually things like:
1) Play without speaking unless you need help or need to ask a question
2) Remain while seated unless the game requires movement (otherwise on the wii in particular he spends the entire time literally bouncing all over the room)
3)Use the toilet before playing & remember to pay attention to his body's needs while playing. (to avoid toileting accidents which can often happen when he's engrossed in something he doesn't want to leave)
Number 1 & 2 can be extremely difficult for him some days, but other days he does really well in sitting and playing quietly. If he forgets and starts bouncing, instead of getting cross at him for breaking his "rules" I ask him what he was supposed to be doing in order to play whatever it is he's using. He usually responds with "Oh yeah, sorry Mum, I forgot" and settles down again.
He doesn't always get it right, I don't always get it right - some days I expect practice in being quiet when he's simply not in the mode of being able to comply (usually when something has caused him to be stressed, agitated, hyper excited, etc) but we're working on the balance and bit by bit he's learning, I'm learning and we're having days where we're not clashing over his extreme noise levels.
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