3.5 year old aspie tracing patterns with his fingers

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I was just wandering how we can make this productive for him. He is intensely concentrating as he does this. He can find a pattern in anything..e.g. my shoes, jeans, his toys etc. Some therapists say to stop the activity but I am wandering is there anything in it. I have tried to engage with him as he traces by following his lead etc. Just wandering did anyone do this when they were younger? I was thinking of giving him lego designs and building to the designs etc. Thanks in advance.

patterns are in essence numbers. its a good gateway into math. if you can get his interest with legos, blocks, tinker toys, etc, that will help build math skills. autistic children are often very visually oriented and fascinated by patterns. my 5 yr old autie is as well. its not something we've ever tried to curb. in fact, we've always encouraged him to be interested in patterns, which turned into an interest in counting, which has developed into excelling at math and easily doing 1-2 grade work even tho he is only in kindergarten. the only downside is when he insists we count to 1000 with him.

i actually just bought this for my son. its a bit young for him, but he still loves to make patterns out of things, and i thought he'd like the colored shapes to do so.

speaking of math, i have to share this about the Fibonacci sequence, its a gorgeous video, lots of lovely patterns and numbers:
Nature by Numbers

Get a big sheet of poster board and in big cursive letters write out the alphabet and encourage him to trace it. Make sure all the letters connect - draw a long line from the last letter in one line to the beginning of the first letter in the next line. Talk him through the letters if he does trace them... Better yet, let him watch you draw it and see if he takes and interest in it himself. Graduate to singing the ABC's if he takes to it and builds up speed.

Give him tracing paper over various pictures - maps, cityscapes, animals, whatever - and encourage him to find his own paths to trace. Do one for him and see what he does with it.

Pay attention to the things he is tracing. Try and figure out what it is he is following. Is it a pattern in the weaving of fabric? Is it a pattern of light and dark? Is it a pattern created by texture? Find out what is intriguing him and look for other opportunities to engage that curiosity.

Whatever he is interested in - use it for all its worth to engage him. Its' an opportunity, an open door you can use to get inside his head and interact. The one thing he is intensely interested it can be the bridge that leads him to the next thing, and the next... If you let him stagnate in that one interest, it would be bad. This would be akin to neglect. But if you are using it to help him move forward, then it is a valuable tool.

My son (same age as your) likes to trace numbers in the air or on the wall.

As others have suggested, you could try to get him interested tracing numbers or letters.

Big chunky crayons and big sheets of paper would be fun.

I think this is awesome! I am curious, why did the therapist say to curtail it? My son has done this for ages. He also is very gifted in math. They even teach patterns in school, as a gateway to math, although not as detailed as when your child is interested in it in their own. When my son does it in the air he can visualize what he has written.

I agree that you should encourage it and try to stretch it to other things. You can show him things in a pre-existing pattern and have him continue it, expand it to number patterns, fibonacci #'s etc...

Get him interested in tracing letters and numbers. You can also get him some tracing paper to put on any patterns in order to trace them with crayons. You should follow his lead and see what he's tracing at. Don't listen to the therapist.

I agree with the post about how maybe he's just having fun tracing patterns........there is no harm in that, kids in general like to entertain themselves and should certainly be allowed so long as its not something that hurts them or others. So I also agree with the concern about why the psychiatrist would tell you to try and make him stop.....that seems extreme and unessisary so I would not listen to that advice.

As for making it more productive, I guess there is no harm in that but certainly don't try to tell him its a bad behavior just because its not something 'productive' in the minds of others..I mean kids will be kids so maybe its just a way he entertains himself and not something to be made into a productive skill.........but still encourage things like tracing letters, numbers ect. if you think that's something he should also do.

If you think that's weird I used to smell the pages of books I read.

I agree that if you can steer him towards something productive like learning numbers and letters that there is no harm in this behavior. He obviously likes to do it so you might as well use it to his advantage. Find a way to add some texture to the lines if he seems to like textures too.

If you've an iPad at hand, it might be worth experimenting with too.

There is no reason to stop this behavior. There's nothing harmful about it. What he is doing is probably indicative of his detailed local processing view of everything in the world, starting from the basic simple patterns. What he traces is what he sees.

He could be just stimming. I trace patterns all the time in my head. It's what we do! I'd get a new therapist.