what’s your kids special interest? | Autism PDD
HISTORY- especially US History....Civil War, The American Revolution- and PRESIDENTS- ALL OF THEM!!!! still enjoys WEATHER, loves hurricane season.... HISTORY, HISTORY, HISTORY!!!! Reads all the time- can't get enough info!
We are going to a re-enactment of the Battle of Hubbarton tomorrow....the only battle fought on Vermont soil in the Revolution(the boss is downstairs, but I believe it is something like that)- we are going at 8am!!!
Gail
Computers, cars, electronic stores and fliers. Game boy, WII ,Jimmy Neutron, Pokemon, Whatever TV shows siblings are into.
Concernedpa.
For Jason, it's Star Wars and sticks. Or straws, or spoons or forks. Whatever he can clack together to make noise, that's the key, and it HAS to be a pair. One of anything doesn't happen with him, he's gotta have something in each hand.
Oh, and he takes his fleece Batman blanket everywhere, and will wrap himself up in it, no matter how hot it is.
She also loves dinosaurs (?), and other animals she sees on Diego. One of her favorite things is to swing and have me sing songs to her (Twinkle, Twinkle - Old Mac Donald -ect..) And of course, I can't forget her blankie, which we lost one day last week at the mall. We searched for 2 hours and I actually had tears in my eyes when we found it! No blankie = No sleep FOR ANYONE
Dora, Blues Clues, Cars (movie and matchbox) and counting. Well, most of Don's interests are typical for his age and gender
(Spiderman,
Transformers, video games, etc.).
However, he does have some that are definitely autistic things, rather
than
just regular interests:
- logos and advertising - he is riveted by commercials, taglines, etc., and
can recite pretty much any store or product's slogan when asked. He can
spot a tiny little logo from 10 feet away and will start scripting about that
product. Caralogues and flyers are big favourites of his, and this all feeds
into his next interest...
- online shopping. Thank GOD he doesn't know our credit card info, as
he
just loads up the shopping cart
- maps
- Wallace and Grommet
- anything technological/electronic. For this reason, Inspector Gadget is
a big interest of his.
- Barney and quite a few other programs meant for preschool kids
- Toy Story (he's a bit old for this, but it will likely be a lifelong interest
*sigh*)
- large, round rocks (he'll carry one around forever outside)
- trees (climbs them, bangs them, licks them, and generally likes to be
aorund them
There are probably others, but those are the ones taht come to mind...
HORSIES!
Except ... lately, the horsies are stand-ins for LIONS!
YepperBepper....my son loves produce too, lol...he has very few toys that he plays with other than video games or computer games...but he likes pretend food...he has just the regular food and a McDonald's food set...but his favorite is the velcro food that he can cut!
When we are grocery shopping his favorite thing to do is put the fruits and veggies into the scale and see the different weights!
Emerald...you made me feel almost normal..heheh.
If we happen to be at anyone's house where they have a produce bowl on a table...fruits, veggies displayed, etc. I make a beeline before he sees it and I make sure he cannot access the produce. I can explain almost anything to anyone about Liam's issues, but for some reason, I find myself stammering when trying to explain why he simply must squeeze their green bell peppers.
I sincerely think it is a Veggie Tales issue. He does have a thing for Larry the Cucumber.
Please...you must tell me where you bought the velcro produce that he can cut. I can see hours of enjoyment with those!
My mom has a bowl in her kitchen that she keeps full of plastic fruit just so Mason has something to do when he is at Grandma's, lol.
We ordered the plastic fruit awhile ago from a catalog...I am thinking it was from a Lakeshore Learning catalog, if you are familiar with those...but I did see it at Wal-mart just a few weeks ago, and it was actually quite cheap, like ...I think we paid like for ours...the wal-mart fruit didn't look as heavy duty as the stuff we have, but I don't think it needs to be...and yes!! Hours of enjoyment comes from the velcro fruit!!
Oh, and Mason has never watched Veggie Tales!! I got him a video once from the library because he enjoys his veggie toys so much and he had no interest in it at all!!
P.S--does your son eat fruits and veggies?? Mason won't eat any fruits or veggies...NONE!! Except what I sneak in his smoothies!
LOL! You guys are cracking me up about the produce!
I think I saw something before made by Doug & Melissa (they make wooden toys and puzzles), and it was food that was pre-cut into slices but it was held together by velcro, so the kids can use a plastic "knife" and pretend like they're slicing it themselves.
Emerald, Liam eats all kinds of produce...only it has to be frozen. I cut up little pieces of fruit and freeze it in a bag and he eats it for snacks. Frozen carrots, peas, limas and corn directly from the bag in the freezer. This is the only way he likes them. Otherwise the texture is a huge issue.
He won't drink smoothies due to the texture.
I will now make it my mission to find velcro fruit!
Thank you very much for responding!
E tends to go through phases, but the ones that have remained for past yearor so: shapes & colors, fave show Hi-5, anything Go Diego Go, and trains/
cars. Lately, she is also WAY into letters.
My older dd (who, the more I read, seems a bit Aspie!) is VERY much into
history (esp Egyptian), drama (making own songs up), arts/crafts, and
politics. She has debated adults on politics--from age 3 she's been very
much into presidents & such. Very funny!
Both girls LOVE Laurie Berkner too (and any music).
First trains, then Lego Bionicles. Today I ran across this book about how to use special interests to motivate:
Power Cards: Using Special Interests to Motivate Children and Youth with Asperger Syndrome and Autism (Spiral-bound)
by Elisa Gagnon (Author)
Excerpt here:
computers and video games ds. dd stuffed animals and live animals.My son is an Aspie ,Or( pdd ,Aspergers type),and he doesn't have a restricted Topic of intrest,he has collections of things ,trains ,cars ect...,But so do his NT friends.
he was dx'd AS because of his speech being in the normal range .
Linda
My little guy likes anything that spins(PDD/NOS), but we try to keep it a back and forth game. He really seems to like the music of Justin Roberts(his concert was fun and simple perfect for spectrum kids) and also Laurie Berkner Band. Anything Backyardigans is a hit with all our kids. Oh, the ceiling fan is a fav too, go figure.
I would have to say computers. He has been this way since he was 2. He also loves Pokemon and drawing.For Billy it is video games, maps, and his stuffed bear "polar" who he has slept with everynight for the last 5 years. If he does not have "polar" at night...he freaks out.
For Chris, it is cooking and eating. That is all he is interested in. On xmas, he is miserable. He does not like toys or anything. He is bored and crying/screaming almost all day everyday. He cannot get interested in a thing (except cooking and eating).
Oldest (10 on July 25) - Star Wars, Science and the Great Outdoors
Youngest (6) - Knex, Legos, Tinker Toys, Numbers, and the Great Outdoors
For Meghann it's drawing and dragons and animals, animals, animals! Animals is what she draws. She can draw any animal you could name within a minute or two with all the details, like how their paws are shaped and everything. It is amazing! Her attention to detail when it comes to animals has always been very keen because even at 3 and four years old she was drawing animals in detail. And they are always in action in her pictures. Like a horse would be jumping and a baby cub would be tumbling around under it's mother as the mother is walking. What's funny though is she will not draw people except in secret. When she draws people I always know because that is the tablet she hides.
For Daniel, it has always been Thomas. Although that interest is dwindling. Now I think Thomas is still what he ask for because that is what he thinks things are. In other words, I am afraid to have a birthday party for him without having some sort of train for a gift and some sort of a package that has trains on it or Thomas because he thinks a birthday is about trains and about Thomas. When he goes into a store to buy a toy he ask for Thomas. But, I don't think that's always what he wants. He likes technology and is amazing at it. Computers, playstations anything electronic.
Drawing my son loves to draw will do it for hours he gets the paper and crayons sometimes markers and just goes to town.. and he is so proud of himself when he is done and comes and shows me.Pokemon, Yugioh, Pokemon, fishing, Pokemon, woodworking and building things with his hands, Pokemon, any kind of weaponry-ugh!!
Merry
Video games, specifically the DS Lite and Wii (Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario and Pokemon) and internet messsageboards pertaining to said video games. He's a messageboard junkie. And he loves YouTube. He's life revolves around the above mentioned activities.Computer and PS2. Currently he is into the computer arcade game Beetle Bug 2 at level 39 and I am at level 10
Karman
)
Busses and motorcycles. He freezes when he sees/hears either!NumbersAlphabet
Little Einstein
Drawing
Trinity loves music, she will play with her daddy for hours. Same with painting. Anything outdoors,especially if it involves water. Cartoons like Veggie Tales and Backyardiagains.
We are trying to break her from her binky. She also loves build-a-bear, so we were thinking of taking her and having her put her binky in a bear and see how well that works.
Connor loves music of all kinds. HE likes to play the harmonica, and play the drums with his big brother. The harmonica is totally hilarious and cute, because he gets really serious and his little tummy moves in and out when he blows into it. Then he looks really proud of himself. I have it on video, I wish I knew how to post it! C also loves airplanes, trains and Mickey Mouse!Hands down, Monster Trucks and Hot Wheels. Both good obsessions sincemost boys who come over for playdates like them as well. He went to
"Monster Jam" last year and loved it. Reads through the program several
times a week, knows the names of all the trucks in it, and like to re-enact
the championship races in Las Vegas that we taped from "On Demand".
He can't wait to go again this year. This is an event DH will definitely be
accompanying him on!
Erin has no fascinations to objects or collections....she is all about physcial movement...she can hang, flip, and drop from any monkey bars, gymnastic equipment or just my hands. She LOVES to be upside down !! LOL
She scares the heck out of everyone at playgounds because she climbs to the very top of wahtever structure and then swings from it or flips upside down. She is actually quite safe on these type of things.....put her at my kitchen table with an empty palte and she is TERRIFING becuase I know that plate will be crashing to the floor in a nano-second.....but up at the top of the slide hanging upside down from the cross bar....now worries.....she's fine !!!
The movie Peter Pan and also, pirates (goes with the Peter Pan movie, I guess!). Thankfully, this is in vogue right now due to Pirates of the Caribbean III out right now! And a LOT of boys love pirates - so this one works. The previous one was bedbugs - not so appealing to peers (or anyone else) let me tell you! I'm darn thankful he moved on!Sarah changes weekly...it was hoobs, now its watching GUTS on nick jr..water surfing and ms paint along with doing crafts...and still into making books:) Her talent lies in piano and reading but she isnt as motivated lately to read or play piano....she loves to teach and tells us how she does every little thing and wants us to demonstrate we understood by doing for her. She wants to be a teacher in school but she is stlll a little one sided and...but I knew teachers that way! lots of them... For Abbie, it's bugs. For Evie, it's stuffed animals (esp. from Build-a-bear workshop) and dinosaurs, to a lesser extent. For both of them - certain movie characters - Monster House, Dumbo and a few others. They both have unusually strong attachments to their blankets and stuffed animals (Evie, to a build-a-bear workshop frog she named Aaron and Abbie to a stuffed Ladybug named Diego and a stuffed butterly named Uno.What's your kids special interest and how does it show (lots ofknowledge, collecting, talking about it...)? Just curious , maybe we will
have some frontrunners.
Main interest:
Money.
He has several books on money he likes to have read, he likes to earn his
own money, he wanted money for x-mas, he likes to ask strangers what
they make. When we saw the new psychiatrist he asked my ds if he had a
question about him and my ds said "Yes, how much do you earn per
hour?" JavaScript:AddSmileyIcon('
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minor interests : recycling, universe
Spiderman, superman...Any superhero and most recently it is now TRANSFORMERS!!! LOL
It shows by how he pretend plays to be what ever obsession he is on at the time.
Karrie
to like them just as much as anything else these days.
He likes jokes and riddles lately, as well as music--he just LOVES to sing.
But nothing wildly intense--which is why I don't know if he's truly
asperger's.
My son has to have cars. Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and especially Road Rippers (the loud obnoxious ones w/lights). He collects them and is VERY proud of them! Right now he's trying to find a Chrysler PT Cruiser matchbox every time we go to a store. Fortunately, he does put his cars aside to play with Thomas Trains, puzzles, and Little People sets, and of course his power strip and plugs.
Xbox and Lego. Of course---it ALL has to be Star Wars!!
And the color blue---ever since he was 3yo!
I wish my ds was interested in something besides his main interestHis Binky.
He also love music especially Laurie Berkner
[QUOTE=YepperBepper]
I have a feeling I may be the only person to say this....but his obsession is...produce. Specfically, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes (with green grapes, at times). He plays with them as one would play with action figures. The produce section in the grocery store is his idea of pure heaven!
[/QUOTE]
My son loves it to! Cherry tomatos, celery, and when we go shopping he loves to carry a green, red, and yellow apple! He won't eat any of it though!
Produce! That cracks me up! My kids and I do love going to the farmers' markets although they are more interested in getting to carry the produce. I don't think I've ever come home with produce that hasn't been mangled and bruised.
My son is crazy for flashlights, stoplights, light switches, dimmer switches and lamps. Second to that is Bob the Builder.
NT daughter is cuckoo for Care Bears.
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