Stacking Behavior in Autistic Children

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Nena Aragón's latest video.

LG

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LffW5bzhHFI[/youtube]

My mother thought it was intelligent of me to line my stuff up. I'd line my toys up in various ways, and it was usually in order of size going by accounts and photos. She never saw it as a problem, and I wasn't verbal either at the time (4 and under).

It amazes me that parents have such a problem with this.

My parents only had a problem when I would get up on a chair and stack all the grocery food cans on top of the refrigerator in such a way that they were in danger of falling on whoever opened the freezer. I had no mal intent, it just did not occur to me what I was doing.

Me too. When my son was a toddler he had an enormous fascination with and collection of small rubber or plastic animals, mostly wild or jungle animals. He played on the floor with them for hours upon hours and lined them up into tribes with the largest animals in the front and tapering off to the smallest. So for example, a tribe of elephants would have the largest elephants in the collection at the lead and then tapering down to the smallest. I don[t know what went through his mind when he played with these animals, but I observed that there was no violence or animosity being acted out of one tribe against another, they all seemed to be getting along with each other and my son certainly appeared to be happily entertaining himself. I thought it was wonderful and every week we added more animals to his collection.

I've always lined up and stacked things. Even now at school when I'm bored i'll line pens up or bits of paper.
At my nana's house I used to have these tins, they were like mini bins or something. And they went from small to big like russion dolls and I spent hours stacking them and un stacking them. And I had these toy animals that I used to line up or I'd make little "sets" and group them into jungle animals, farm animals, porceline orniments etc

Nothing wrong with stacking. If you get good enough at it, don't you become an architect or a construction worker or something?

Is that what the video is saying-its a problem? [cant understand much as there's no subs].

Agrees,it should not be seen as a problem because it isnt for the autist,am still do it [stack and line up things regulary] and have lived with others who would line up the tins,packets and things in the pantry,they were so good at tidying up unordered mess the staff made they could have done supported work in a shop,they do not get given the chance because of automatic beliefs to prof/autism.

Wonders if people would find it a problem or even notice it if the child did not have autism/an asd.

No. The video is saying that it should be seen as creative behavior and encouraged.

LG

Yep. Both as a way to encourage creative thought, and as a way to communicate with the kid who's doing it.

I used to do this, and my mom let me do it, and didn't mind. She gave me dried beans and pasta to make patterns with--I have pictures of that--and I used to spend time organizing my rock collection into patterns, too. Of course there are patterns in Legos--I was one of the few kids I knew who would copy the patterns of bricks on a house in Lego houses...

I think it helped with visual-spatial skills, growing up. I still think of numbers as basically patterns and shapes.

video says much but not so much. I tuned out. (sorry)

Stacking sorting is done by many people not just kids on the spectrum. Lots of kids line up cars, army men, play with blocks etc. It's a way of feeling in control rather than a true marker of autism spectrum disorders.

How many kids do you know that don't like stacking blocks or categorizing? Most intelligent kids engage in systemizing.

On the other hand, sppinning items or spending endless amounts of time watching an object move is another story. Or, being drawn to certain odd objects such as lights or door knobs etc. are more indicative of an autism spectrum. imobofrape. (decode O' brave ones)

video says much but not so much. I tuned out. (sorry)

Stacking sorting is done by many people not just kids on the spectrum. Lots of kids line up cars, army men, play with blocks etc. It's a way of feeling in control rather than a true marker of autism spectrum disorders.

How many kids do you know that don't like stacking blocks or categorizing? Most intelligent kids engage in systemizing.

On the other hand, sppinning items or spending endless amounts of time watching an object move is another story. Or, being drawn to certain odd objects such as lights or door knobs etc. are more indicative of an autism spectrum. imobofrape. (decode O' brave ones)

I would stack things to as a child, blocks, books, magazines, and I am still stacking things
like my books and cd's, frozen food in the freezer, I was wondering if its a little OCD of me.

Why apologize? If the video does not speak to you, then so be it.

LG

When I was a girl I was stacking all the time. I remember a lot of things with this video.
It is true that we see life and understand issues like stacking things.

I have been stacking things all my life.. a lot of times subconsciously. Like earlier today I was watching Transformers Armada and stacked all my pill bottles. Also playing with my ex's son, I would stack things and he would run over and knock them down and I would re-stack the items. I would do it even when he was completely distracted by something else.

That was a really good video.
My mum said when I was in preschool I would line up play dough across the whole room, and that I would line up things I collected on the street on my bed and sleep next to them.
I remember spending hours stacking dominoes and once I had two giant Better Blocks bins and I built the tallest towers with them. At least 5 times my height.
I still line up and stack things. I like order and it really calms me.

As for spinning toys I have a magic box (Kinder Surprise) that spins images and a spinning top that I can play with for hours. And I spin coins too.