u/Far-Worry6636 — reddlx

I hesitate to post here about my son, because he's level 1, and our struggles pale in comparison to most of what gets posted here. I just wondered if people have advice about lying? My son is 6, almost 7, very hyperactive. extremely verbal. He talks and fidgets constantly, and does a lot of oral stimming... like weird voices and repeating phrases, and yelling/screaming for fun. We catch him in lies fairly often. What's more concerning to me is that we don't seem to be able to have any dialogue with him about his lying habit. He won't engage with the topic at all when we ask him why he's lying, or why he felt like that was appropriate or needed. No matter what he just shrugs and says "I don't know." We punish him when we catch him in a lie... just time outs (which don't seem to phase him at all) and sometimes taking away screen time or dessert or something (which bugs him a lot more)

I know he has very poor impulse control, and I think probably he just says things without thinking about it much, but it feels like something that can quickly become an ingrained habit if we can't figure out how to help him introspect a little bit, and learn from the experience, etc.

We've tried to be chill about it, not actively trying to trap him in a lie or interrogating him about things that don't matter. Like, we tell him to wash his hands - he disappears to the bathroom for 2 seconds, and comes back with dry hands. it's like, "did you wash your hands?" / "Yeah." we don't make a big deal out of it, we just say do it again, use soap. That's a low stakes situation, but there's been a lot of more consequential lies lately. Recently he plugged the toilet with a toy car, and has lied about it repeatedly, even after caught.

ANyone else struggling with this? Have any tips?