Do you let your kids line stuff up?

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I talked to her again today. Lining stuff up isn't the only thing she said he shouldn't do. She also said laying on the ground, staring at his hands, opening and closing doors over and over, and a whole bunch of other stuff he does is also self-stimulating behavior, and I'm not supposed to let him do those either.

Well, it is hindering his development in some ways because he has low muscle tone and very poor motor planning, which makes him want to sit around or lay around the house a LOT.

So when he's not laying down, he wants to line stuff up. So he doesn't get a lot of physical movement in, which is exactly what his brain needs right now.

Maybe you should ask her, if she just wants you to tie his hands behind his back. Geeze!

If you plant red roses and they turn out to be yellow, do you paint them red so that they'll "fit in"?

Personally I think I'd get another Dr...one that would be more focused on helping my son develop as an individual and cope with the stresses he may face in life...and less focused on change.

The thing is that he doesn't do those behaviors when we are out in public. He is very, very cautious when we are out anywhere. He will talk a lot to me, but he sticks very close and just stares at other people without moving much at all.

But I do see the point that when he is at home and relaxing, he should be able to do whatever he wants, as long as it's not dangerous. I guess it's kind of like watching t.v. People do it to relax, but hopefully they don't do it all day.

After reading all this, I want to describe my ds a little bit and tell me what you think. I set up a appt with dr for friday to try to get a referral to someone for testing. Ds was dx a=ADHD at age 3. He is now 5 and still lines up his cars. When his brother comes and moves one it sends him into a crying frenzy. I thought it was OCD. If something is out of place he gets real upset and nervous and hurries to fix it. I thought he got that from me. I am very organized. Was never dx AS. When eating. He is so picky and if it is not something he wants he will tell me he dont like it before he even tried it and cry and fuss. Have to force him to eat. His new thing is "I am not hungery" But he is so underweight that we have to make him eat. Tried THC pills and no way. Dont do that. He was always walking and talking like he was drunk. Took him off them fast. We used to get WIC (women infants and children) but he dont get it no more. And pediasure is 12.00 for 6 cans. We cant afford that. Cries at bath time(he hates water on his head). Ups and downs. (on min kicking and the next crying). Would play video games 24/7 if I let him. (that I dont allow) Very possesive. (thinks all the toys are his). Will do puzzles for hours on end but dont pick them up when he is done. (I allow the puzzles but fuss when he dont pick them up.) The no eye contact. (Always looking to the sides). Used to chew on the inside of his mouth till he had to get stiches and now is always chewing on his shirts. (OMG this is driving me nuts. He has ruined so many shirts by eating them). My mother is always telling me I need to give him more attention but she dont realize he gets more attention at home then the baby does. Sleep: is nuts. Without the meds to make him sleep he will stay up till 3 in the morning and then get up again at 6 and be ready for the day. Massive insomnia. Prowling: He gets up in the nite and just walks around or raids the fridge. ( I let him eat at nite. We leave little things out like dry cereal for him to eat. He needs to eat) But have to add locks to the door because I am afraid he is going to get out and get hurt. Daycare is always complaining about his behavior. (he kicked the day care lady) He kicks his brother all the time and leaves bruises on him. (I am afraid he is going to hurt the baby). I have taken him to councilers but they want to try to tell me what I bad parent I am and that I need to use time outs and put him in the corner. (the corner scares him). So we stopped going there. But due to the insurance he is on I have a hard time finding people who will see him. I found a dr that will see him but they are 200 miles away.

I hope you can find someone good who knows about spectrum disorders who can see your son. He sounds a lot like my son at that age, but with a lot of work and interventions at almost 12 he is doing great. I remember the shirt thing - I'd almost forgotten about that - first I thought we had moths till I caught him at it!

We didn't have the eating/sleeping issues, but I read of so many parents who do. Our son would go off however, he did one morning when my older daughter (18) was supposed to be watching him. He went to the corner store on his bike because he was hungry - he was 4. He also had chicken pox. The police were pretty unhappy with us. It could have turned out worse.

We were lucky that our school sent our son to a psychologist and paid for the testing. I would strongly recommend finding out his correct dx as soon as possible.

Hello, forgotten about this topic. The only reason it got dug up is because I got a T.R.N e-mail thingy.

Well, I have to give an update now on my original post. The behavioral therapist taught him how to make the figurines talk to each other, take the train to the beach, etc. Now he lines things up a little less, because he is playing with the things a little more.

His teacher at special ed preschool explained it to me like this: that he is lining things up because he doesn't know what else to do with the toys. He doesn't look at the toys and immediately know how they were intended to be played with.

He still does it, and I don't stop him. Sometimes I will pick one up and make them talk to each other, etc., but he also does that a lot on his own now too.

Walk in the rain is absolutely right.

While we need to help our children learn to behave in as an outwardly acceptable manner as possible while in public (no hitting, yelling, etc), when at home they should be able to play as they choose.

I'm sure your kiddo is smart enough to know that the little action figures look sort of like little people and could have a voice if he wanted them to. What makes our kids special is that they DON'T do things the way every other kid does.

When my son's teacher (6th grade) couldn't figure out how to grade his book report as he'd done it so unusually I explained it like this - 80% of kids do things typically. 18% of kids think outside the box. 2% of kids, like our DS, aren't even aware the box exists.

Dominoes were not originally invented to be lined up, yet look at all the joy it brings people to do just that.

Altaynia, get a book called A Users guide to the GF/CF diet for Autisim, Aspergers syndrome and AD/HD, by Luke Jackson. Luke Jackson is a young man with Aspergers and his brothers are all on the spectrum, his youngest has ADHD and probably on the spectrum too. Luke's mum put them all on a wheat/gluten free diet with remarkable results. This may help your son. It wont get rid of the problems but they will be more manageable, Luke also suffered from insomina and if I remember rightly the diet helped him, his youngest brother had a lot of sensory issues and eating issues and the diet helped him a lot. I hope this will help.