What are your childrens special interest?

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It started off with trains, by the time they were two my twin sons could explain in detail the workings of a steam engine. They would go back and forth in this Abott and Costello "Who's on First?" type routine, as they would recite over and over again about the coal in the firebox, the steam moving the pistons etc. It was adorable! They each had favourite trains ( the French TGV for one and the Japanese bullet train for the other), and they also loved Thomas and everything to do with Thomas.

They moved on to Super Heroes around the age of 4 (sparked by a family friend who worked in a comic book store and would send them scads of action figures, posters etc.), followed by a brief dalliance with dinosaurs and then crocodilians for one and turtles for the other, until settling into a major Bionicle obsession around 6.5. They are now (age 10) and it has been all about Lego and Star Wars for a couple of years, with no sign of abating.

They often will have a minor interest or two along with the major ones. They don't become nearly as immersed in these minors, but they are nice for a bit of variety.

I was really shocked the other day when no one in the room knew who Boba and Jango Fett are!! ! I forget sometimes that not everybody lives in my world.

It was always one pitculiar species of animal. I just needed to find the right one and now I think I am taking meerkats to the grave.

Right now and for the last year and a half it has been Batman and/or Superhero's. He also enjoys playing with money, and naming the different Presidents on the Bills.

geography

Yes, very true. I was the same way. From age 6 to age 11 1/2, other than Archie comic books, the only main special interest I had was Barbies, so I wasn't seen as having the typical special interests. I didn't begin having the stereotypical monologue-giving special interests until I was 11 1/2. I just would spend all of my free time, by myself, reading my comic books, lining my comic books up on the floor, dressing/playing with my Barbies, and lining my Barbies up on the stairs in a particular order. I must have had over 100 Barbies, and the amount of clothes/accessories I had was ridiculous. I would have to buy every new outfit that came out. And of course, each Barbie had her own name and last name, birthday, favorite color, etc. And I would remember them all. I still remember many. I liked Barbies so much because the dolls were a way of letting the characters I created come to life. Many of the current characters I draw or write about were either created as a Barbie or were created in childhood and brought to life as a Barbie.

AS wasn't known about when I was a toddler/preschooler, so my all-encompassing special interests during that time were overlooked. When I began developing special interests that I would ramble on and on about, the "screening period" for AS was already past, so I fell through the cracks. It wasn't until I went for CBT for my OCD at age 18 1/2 that AS was first suspected, because my therapy sessions usually would consist of me giving monologues on my special interests, rather than me letting the therapist help me.
-OddDuckNash99-

I wonder how many of these special interests genuinely disappear as the child grows and how many are just hidden in favour of what they know is more age appropriate. My daughter is nearly 16 and has most definately stopped playing with Barbie. However she still has them all neatly stashed in the storage area outside her room. And she still won't let me get rid of so much as a shoe. And like OddDuckNash99 she has tons of them. Has she just learnt to conform? Once she reaches an age where she doesn't care what others think, will they all come back out again?

Crayons, especially orange crayons, music and coasters

Oh and besides Batman, my son's newest interest is purses. He carries them around with him everywhere he goes. He has so many we had to put them in a box and he drags the box around with him. Now don't get me wrong, he does not just like to carry a purse, he likes to carry the purse and each purse contains a specific "theme" One purse may have all his tools, another may have teacher stuff (he likes to play teacher alot), another may have hygiene related items and another may contain just money. You get the picture.... He is very organized and likes to have lots and lots of stuff to carry around! My Little Angel

My son is the same way too! He knows every make/model car that there is (or so it seems) and doesnt need a logo to identify it. Sometimes, its as simple as the exhaust, the tail lights or head lights that makes it so he can identify the car. He especially loves exotics like Bugattis, Aston Martins, Ferraris, etc. Oh and MINI's because I had one. We were always so amazed and just thought he took a special interest since his Dad and I are so into cars as well.

He's also heavily into video games of any kind, computers, DS, Wii. He talks about it constantly and nonstop. Lately he has also gotten into Bakugan which has been interesting.

Lego Star Wars. Sometimes he'll switch to ....Star Wars Lego. Then maybe a little Star Wars. Then Lego. Then back to Lego Star Wars.

I spend hours blogging and researching Aspergers, and my husband spends hours googling and memorizing Star Wars facts (and I mean HOURS - my son asks for extremely detailed and obscure information) so he can answer all of my son's questions.

Before Lego Star Wars it was Dinosaurs, he memorized all their names and facts. Before that, when he was a toddler, it was balls.

Funny story: we are Canadian and on a trip down to the United States when he was 2, he was in Target and was so excited about finding his favourite toy on his first trip to another country, that he stood up in the shopping cart and yelled out to me as loud as he could (I was a few aisles away) "LOOK MAMA!! !! I HAVE TWO BIG AMERICAN BALLS!! !!" as he thrust his fist up into the air to show me his...um...American balls. Needless to say we got our share of scathing looks.

That is hilarious!! ! That reminded me that my son loves to listen to the radio, and he picks up the words to songs so quickly, I have to monitor what he hears! For instance, one day that song "All I want to do is make love to you" was on, and I was like "oh no" and turned it down very quickly. He is like a sponge when it comes to music, so I have to be really careful because he will go around repeating things like that!

Aimless, one day my husband was looking up an old model of VW and he came across a Karman Gia (sp?) Anyway, my son wanted a model of it right then and there. It took us quite a while to get his mind off of it. He really loves VW bugs and old VW buses. He gets really excited about those. I have to admit, they are pretty neat.

The funny thing is, as much as my son loves cars, if he has to ride in another car besides mine or my husband's he goes into panic mode. We have to talk him through it. One day he was literally shaking when a friend asked if he wanted to go for a ride in her bug. This only started when he was about 3---before that , he was fine when we rode with someone else or had a rental car. Usually, we can talk him through it and once he gets in and the music is going, he is fine!

Oh yes, the songs. My son can be heard on any given day singing "I kissed a girl, and I liiiiiiked it" (Katie Perry) or "I'm gonna start a FIGHT!!" (Pink) or "Shake that booooootay, yah shake that boooooootay" - so far he's kept it to the car, but I dread the day he decides to break into song in the grocery store

My middle son loves cloths hangers and toilets. But I have used those
strange fascinations. One day the thought hit me , why dont you use
google images to teach your son. You can actually teach a lot with
hangers more than I thought. You can teach how to count, what colors
they are, what shapes they are. Toilets well I just havent found
much creative juices with them. How they work or toilets from different
parts of the world is as far as I got on this subject. But hey we have
a lot of fun doing it and he gets a kick out of spending time with Dad ,
and sharing something he is interested in.

Sock

My son fave topic is about space n everything about Astronomy. He can talk about it for hours n hours until someone stop him. He wanna be an Astronaut someday, he said.

Ds is into weather and has been for a long time. He specifically likes tornados and watches the Storm Chasers on Discovery channel every chance he can. He recently was able to meet someone who drove one of the vehicles on that show and was so excited. He told the school psychologist when he goes to college he will avoid partying and video tape tornadoes and after tornado season will have his own party and serve beer to get people to come over. He is 11 years old.