Geography fixation in 6yo - foster or redirect?

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Roll with it, and be happy he's not doing drugs or subjecting you to an obsession with something vile! I'd get him the nice, new atlas. And some computer programs relating to his focus. : )

It's going to stunt his development making him just interact with peers his own age. I also found kids my own age often didn't "get it" when I used big words. If someone said "don't use big words", I wouldn't have taken that to mean "don't speak" because all words were big words to me.

Aspie kids often do better with others with similar interests and this might mean with older children.
Instead of stunting themselves to fit in with some kind of artificially determine norm, we should be able to say big words if we want.

Anyway, back to the topic, I'd say it's a great thing that this boy is so interested in geography and it should be encouraged.

Definitely foster it! It can only help him when he gets older. Knowledge is much better than ignorance. The broader a person's knowledge base, the better.

My experience from 36 years of "aspiedom" is that being allowed to "endulge" in whatever special interest is somehow "unwinding" and relaxing, even when concentrating hard on sorting and organizing nitty-gritty details that seem mondaine to the average NT.

My "big thing" back in my teen years was my computer (the mighty Commodore 64 ), but since my parents thought this "pushed" more important things (such as homework), it came down to no computer outside weekends, and later to a total ban. That didn't just exactly make me do more homework, and today I still regard this as the worst thing my parents did to me.

So I'd say let him go for it. My "set of special interests" has seen topics come and go, so with a little luck, it'll all balance out over time. If you have a decent internet connection, here's really great, and free, "electronic atlas" to download: http://earth.google.com/

foster it

I had a lot of interests that could be considered eccentric as a child, teenager and young adult (and still do to this day). None of these interests individually would probably have led to productive employment. However, the broad knowledge base I gained from all of them has helped me perform my job at the library very well. I know where everything is and know the general location of all my favorite subjects on the Dewey Decimal system (pets in the 600s, running in the 700s, literature in the 800s, and history in the 900s.)

FOSTER IT and here's why:

My biggest obsession when I was 6 years old was also geography and little did I know what great fortune would be bestowed upon me due to my natural talents in this academic subject. In 1994, I won the state portion of the National Geography Bee and placed 9th nationally. The prize for the state portion was a half tuition scholarship, which helped me go to college (and major in Geography nonetheless) and changed my life for the better.

It's not to say that your little one will necessarily win the Geography Bee, but in our increasingly interconnected world, it's a good thing to know about other people and places!

Thanks for all the very convincing responses, in particular Inventor. Great post. Thank you. It’s unanimous. I’ve already been atlas shopping.

Cheers.

I will echo what everyone has already said - Let him be! My son is 10 and I cannot even begin to count the number of interests (obsessions if you like) he has had in his life. My son would do just as you described on any subject -once it was military insignias and ranks, etc. He HAD to know everything he could about it and then he was done. His favorite books are reference books - He currently uses a Medical dictionary (got it for free!) a set of encylopedias I got for real cheap at the library, I bought him a Math dictionary (he's a math kid) and he must look up words in the dictionary 10-15 times a day.

It's geography now but it will be another subject soon and think of all the knowledge his little brain is acquiring. My son (he is homeschooled) gets 90% of his knowledge from self directed learning - I teach him the practical things he really needs to know and the rest is his for the picking!

I went to a conference put on by a social worker who is also an aspie and he stressed that the most important thing we could do is let our kids be who they are and not who we think they should be.

Good Luck!

The schools are full of kids that have no interest in learning.

Aspy interests are normal, and are a thing to encourage.

Look for opportunites to widen the interest into parallel areas.


My parents encouraged me, in my interest in math.
My highschool math teacher arranged access to a computer,
that supported the Basic programming language.

Today, I am married with 2 kids.
I am a fairly happy software craftsman.

Lead by example.
Learning is a thing that should happen every day of your life.

I hope your kid loves his new atlas. Maybe your kid has found a lifelong obsession, maybe it will fade after some time - there's no way to know. But there's nothing wrong with geography (and other geo-sciences), it won't do any harm either way. And it's definitely an interesting career, if the obsession lasts.