Early signs of a 'special interest'?

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my son has been obsessed with animals and dinosaurs for as long as I can remember. He will be 5 next week and for the 3rd birthday in a row he is requesting the exact same dinosaur and jungle animal cake. He plays with little else. Even other items (legos, etc.) he will somehow find a way to make into an animal.

I belive some hobbies / intrests children have when their younger can become more intense if a child is suffering anxiety & is their way of coping with this emotion, the more stressed a child is the more focus on their intrest.

My son's popped up when he was about 15mo. He used to stand on a little step-stool by the window and just wait for birds to fly past it. When he was in his car seat he would squeal with glee and we would look to see someone walking a dog two blocks down. He knew where every lawn ornament involving an animal was in the neighborhood and when we went for walks we had to pause so he could carefully study each plastic owl, rabbit or deer. He would only play with animal toys.

Then, when he was three years old, I took him for his first neuropsych evaluation and there was a basket of plastic dinosaurs in the waiting room. He's never turned back. He still likes animals but he LOVES dinosaurs. His plan life plan is to be "a grandpa who hunts and a paleontologist who lives in Africa."

I didn't have a special interest at that age either. This started at about seven, when I made up an imaginary world inhabited by a family of bears and talked about it nonstop. Then I became very keen on the Middle Ages -- it was always, "Mummy, what would we be like if we lived in the 1300s?" and reading books on the topic. This interest lasted for several years.

My son's special interests change, but it's been Pokemon and Star Wars for a long time. Star Wars especially. When he was 2, it was Thomas the Tank Engine. He played with them, watched the movies, and if you moved the trains or track, he'd get upset. But man, he was good at building them. I have pics of his layouts, they were awesome.

He really likes legos too. He's a builder.