fixation

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My daugter gets fixated on things. The main fixation of her life is horses but for the christmas season its moved to reighndeer. She makes everything about them, its all she wants to talk about.

My question is do I as a parent try to stop this or embrace it? Do I take her to see real reighndeer and buy her stuffed ones or do I try and sway her into being interested in different things?

My gut says let her enjoy them and go with it but maybe I'm not supposed to?

Thanks.

If she is particularly obsessed with it and just thinks about reindeer then maybe it's something you can bribe about. For example, if she wants that cute Rudolph toy in the toyshop window and keeps saying "PLEASE can I have that reindeer? PLEASE CAN I HAVE THAT REINDEER!? I WANT THAT REINDEER! I WANT THAT REINDEER! etc... then you could say to her something like "If you tidy your room you can have that reindeer toy" or "If you be polite (e.g please and thank you) for the rest of the day you can have that reindeer toy".

Hope I've helped.

Regards, mightyzebra

I guess what I'm getting at is I know its normal for her to be fixated on one thing but should it be encouraged or discouraged or just part of the day?

Hi there! Our daughter was obsessed with dolphins for a couple years before she grew tired of them...it is part of their keen interests in things..because of the holiday season, your daughter willl surely have her fill of reindeer..I was pleased my daughter was into dolphins....it is normal, expected, accepted ......

fixations are completely normal for autistic children and you should both embrace them and work with them. Like mightyzebra suggests, use the reindeer as an incentive. Even using reindeer for enriching activities like coloring or artwork, math, creative writing, conversation, geography.
My son's obsessions are video games and the characters in them. I let him write about them, dress up as his favorite characters and I buy him literature on it-as he doesn't like to read books aimed at his age groups. He reads video game instructions, lists of Pokemons, etc.

I don't have a problem with my son's fixations. His first was the Titanic, and he (and I) have learned alot from it. I let him find out as much as he can because it's also a learning tool. I can see how some of his obsessions will help him as he gets older in school. (school projects, science class) We go to the library and find books on whatever his current obsession is. He colors, draws, writes about it. He has had a number of obsessions (he's 9 yrs) over the years and I have yet to find one that I have a problem with.

the only time to nip it in the bud, is when their fixation becomes all-encompassing & they refuse to talk about anything else or do anything other than their fixation

I would encourage it and use the interest to push her in areas she might not be as strong in (like reading or science etc).

I've always had a little trouble with the term "fixation." It is a loaded word often used in psychobabble and implies an unhealthy preoccupation with something, usually regarded as trivial or unimportant, as opposed to an intense interest in a subject. I suspect a little girl enamored with horses or reindeer finds these subjects extremely important, and maybe isn't yet capable of understanding why others aren't as interested in them as she is.

However, I do understand that when such an intense interest becomes all consuming to the exclusion of other important activities it can become a problem, but don't see why this type of psychobabble jargon needs to be used.

its used because its easyer to say "fixation" than to say "an unhealthy preoccupation with something, usually regarded as trivial or unimportant, as opposed to an intense interest in a subject." everytime.

i didn't interpret sadies-dad's reply as anything other than stating an alternative way of saying fixation......one of the many things i hate about email & posting is that you can't exactly tell the person's tone of voice~leads to lots of misinterpretations for me....

Thats all I was doing. Although its nice to know snuuz thinks I'm his/her pal...