My daughter's especially like this. A walk to school, in the morning, is like a scientific expedition. She has to stop and look at every slug on the way and she spots unusual looking plants and insects. Even when she was really tiny, she was obviously more curious than other kids her age. I used to take her to rhyme time in our local library, but she wouldn't sit on my knee and clap her hands like the other babies. She would scurry off to see what books she could get her hands on. I had to stop taking her, much earlier than I'd planned, as I was always chasing after her and I think we were distracting the others. When we went to baby gym, she would not sit in the circle for the warm-up or song time. She'd be off to see what apparatus was set up. Yet again, I was constantly chasing after her, but it was an activity class anyway, so we managed to keep going until she was too old.
This is one thing that is helping with ASD traits, e.g. taking things literally. She will hear a statement, think that it doesn't make sense, so she'll ask for an explanation. Her natural curiosity means that she wants to know more; an explanation which will help her to understand. We seem to be working our way through the expressions that cause confusion for some people on the spectrum. I think the speech & language therapist was impressed that she asks so many questions about such things.
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"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiatic about." Charles Kingsley