Why is it wrong for a child to line up their toys?

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I've often heard that parents will freak out if their child lines up their toys because they think they are autistic. My two year old nepphew lines up his Cars cars all the time. He's learning about color and same vs diffrent that way. We have more than one of a certian car so fights don't break out because two kids want to play with Lightning McQueen at the same time. My other nepphew was at school and my two year old nepphew was the only one intrested in the Cars cars at the momment. He lined up both Lightning McQueens and all the other red cars and started making rows with other colors. He said something but he's just learning to form actual words so most of what he says comes out as giberish that only my sister-in-law can interpret. To some parents this would be a "red flag" and they would want him to be assed for autism. Even if a child really is autistic, why is it such a negetive thing for them to line up their toys?

I do not know what part of this leads to you to think that parents are concerned about the lining up of toys for its own sake rather than because they are worried that it means their child has Autism.

No one cared too much about it when I was a child, and evidently, it was not a widely known "sign" of Autism either.

Do you have some reason to believe that parents would care about this behavior if they did not perceive it as reason to suspect Autism, and that parents are worried about the behavior itself rather than what they think the behavior might mean?

I used to line up my toys instead of playing with them like other children. I enjoyed it though, I was much happier lining things up than playing with them in ways that I didn't understand or playing with them with other children.

I always used to line toys up ever since when I was a little kid and weirdly enoughh, when i'm in the library, I actually tend to line the books up in a straight line. and my friends already find that creepy.

Dont you mean assessed? Not sure i wanna know what kind of meaning that sentence has taken on with that slip up.

my daughter is an organizer and I think it's the cutest thing ever. I first caught her organizing her stuffed animals at age 2, first by size, then color, then type. I watched her for a half hour before she noticed me. she has ADHD and her IQ is 130. she's not autistic.

I think some people were born to organize, whether NT or autistic, and they just really get into it.

I can't believe some people are afraid of it. it just indicates a love for patterns, which could lead to excellence at math, engineering, art, etc. etc.

There is nothing wrong with lining up toys...many neurotypical children do it besides autistic children. Many parents just simply overreact...

One Thanksgiving, my little four year old (neurotypical) niece lined up all the toy trucks along the kitchen floor and her father remarked, "Look, we have a convoy!"

my nephew does this. I didn't know it was a red flag. he is showing other hallmarks of autism. I have talked to my brother about it briefly but I really don't know where you would go to find out what more to look for besides what I have seen (problems with transitions and a speech delay)

If I did ever line something up, I would've lined up cars because cars were my toy obssession.

Opps! I've always had trouble spelling, and I have been having so much trouble seeing lately. I have to glance at the screen for a brief secound and so my words and phrases don't always come out right. Yes, I meant assessed.

With me it was Russian dolls.

Dominoes for me. I would line them up standing so they would fall over in a chain. I used to want to create complex arrays of dominoes and set them off in the usual manner, and I disliked being bothered by the other kids while I was doing this. I was surprised very much when the other kids apparently couldn't understand what I was doing, despite the widespread cultural reference.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJB7L1-iWt4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNzqec0oVyY&feature=fvw[/youtube]

I don't think it's wrong. In fact, I find it aesthetically pleasing.

I'd say it's for about the same reason someone might freak out that they have appendicitis if they get a stomach cramp.. if a vague sign of a problem is more well-known than the problem itself, people are going to see the sign and assume that's what it means.
For that matter, that's the same exact reason why any presentation that's not completely stereotypical tends to be missed. Apparently my mother considered that I could be autistic, but when she was in high school, she volunteered at a state hospital and worked with an autistic kid who would always take off his clothes and twirl his underwear around on his finger. Since I didn't do that, she figured it couldn't be autism.

Haha, awesome!!

I remember lining things up as a kid but why make it an autistic thing? My husband says lot of young children do this.

Then I remember seeing on youtube how autistic kids do it. Normal kids line up certain things, autistic kids will line up anything. A normal kid will line up their toys they are playing with while an autistic child will grab everything and line them up.