My son had a fan obsession. I would try your best to distract him as much as humanly possible. If after numerous tries of redirecting him to other fun toys, play with mom or dad or someone whose company he enjoys, games like hide and go seek, anything really, then try to at least use the fan in your play.
For example make a toy fan out of poster paper and use it in your play. Initially we would pretend to use this toy fan to cool muffins that we baked. Sometimes we'd do pretend play where I played a monster that was chasing him and he used his toy fan to blow me away...after months of this, the fan became a very small part of a larger play. It became less significant and the games became far more enjoyable.
As one neuropsych told me, "It's not the fan that you object to him playing, it's that he wants to play with the fan or think about it constantly."
It might not be possible to take it out of his thoughts completely right now, but you can start doing lots of things at home with him to make it less important to him.
Also, find out what it is about the fan he likes. Dr. Greenspan in his book sometimes would ask his patients if they obsessed about something, "Why do you like it?" It gets the child to start wondering why he does like it so much. Plus you might be able to figure out if he is trying to get some kind of sensory input from it that he's not getting elsewhere. For example, my son liked the wind in his face. So I made a fan out of paper and let him carry that around. It did not look anything at all like the three-bladed or four-bladed fans in our homes or at stores. So it broke his idea of what a fan must look like. But I would use this paper fan to blow wind in his face and he loved this. But we wouldn't do it just so he could get lost in the pleasure of feeling wind on his face. I use it in purposeful pretend play to prevent his mind from wandering off and prevent him from zoning out. The pretend play kept him focused and interacting with me.
Keep in mind that this kind of refocusing, redirecting, and introducing dynamic elements to his play will help to not make the fan so important in his life.
I know you are upset and I know it looks like his obsession will never end. But since I started doing these things with my son, he's actually alot more interactive and doesn't mention fan that much anymore.Until you get help, it won't hurt him to watch the fan for a while. I would still try to play and get him interested in other things, but use the time you have on researching. I would look into ABA therapy!! Also Speech and occupational therapy. There are lots of threads on here about all.Thanks...I did the round and round thing and he says it very often. I noticed when we keeps the fans on he notices them all day long. It is summer and hard to keep them off. Having a 7 year old and also a 5 month old does not allow me to be on top of him 24/7. I know he could be a little better if that were the case.
Hi Carter's Mommy.
Last year at this time when my son was 2.5, we had similar issues. He was OBSESSED with "spinnies" as I called them, had huge fears of new places, refused to take a walk to the right of our home. Amusement parks were a nightmare! Haircuts consisted of the entire family leaving the home when it was haircut night...and my daughter and I holding him down and just going to it. I was there where you are and I understand your frustration and panic, if you will.
We let him watch the fan. However, we used all of his obsessive issues as methods for learning. I labeled the fan, his spinnie in the yard, his legos. Additionally, we also slowly integrated new things, toys, books and especially music in order to engage him. Music was the trick for us. Wee Sing tapes were our salvation. Through music, we have (without intervention) taught him his numbers, letters, colors shapes, body parts and great finger/hand games that have increased his eye to hand coordination. Best of all...through music we have at least doubled, or perhaps tripled his eye contact.
We, (under Doc's care) instituted the GFCF due to gut issues. Besides addressing his intestinal problems, we believe we also benefitted from some awarness increases.
Liam is now 3.5. He no longer cares for anything that spins. He loves amusement parks, is begnining to ride his tricycle. He colors, draws and "reads" his books. He swims every day and finds chasing me back and forth in the yard to be funny. He actually laughs out loud! He has staring contests with my husband and son. He usually wins.
I am no expert and we are just begining speech therapy and occupational therapy through early intervention. However, there are tons of experts on this board who probably have some great advice to give. I guess my point is....you can do things at home until you see the professionals. My other point is....things can and will more than likely get better.
Prior to going through EI, I read, spoke to physicians, researched...but THIS BOARD was and remains the best source of information I have ever come accross.
My son has always been drawn to fans as well. I leave them on when we're not working, but when we are working or reading books, etc, the fans get turned off. I do not get his full attention if there is a fan on or a light on!Thanks again. I try to figure out what it is. It seems like he goes from one obsession to another. Last month it was doors. I noticed he is ok most of the time but still has his moments. When we are on walks he points to all the garage doors when they are open. Cabinets in the kitchen have to be closed as well. I just see his little eyes move in circles when he watches it. It scares me because he is such a great little boy and this impedes him from being himself!
I am with Bullet!
Floortime would tell you ... get involved WITH HIM in his fan watching. Get into his head and then develop it into a game or interactive activity. He may be self-soothing by trancing out on it ... find out how to draw him away from it, gently! But also let him do some of it, and make it into something sociable!
I am going crazy! My son would rather watch the fan than look or play with me! The first thing he wants to do in the morning is go watch the fan! Do I let him??? We can't even go to my parents without him asking for it to be turned on. If we go for a walk around there property he keeps pointing to the house and saying fan! He also does not like to go to new places! He screams as soon as pull into the parking lot. Things seem like they are getting worse by the day. We have no help it is going to take us 3 months to see a therapist who speacializes in autism.
Thanks
I would not indulge him. Our DS used to and still likes to watch the fan, however it is only incidental now. We distracted or took him away from rooms where there are fans. The more you indulge it, the more he thinks it is okay to do just that. He is okay with being in a room and doing other things besides watching the fan. Good Luck.
Concernedpa.
You could try talking or making up a game with him with the fan. Get a small handheld fan. Sit down next to him, don't look at him, pretend you're there to watch the fan as well. Make swirly circles with your fingers and say "round and round". After a while he may start to notice you. Then you pause after the first "round" and stop the fan, very briefly. Start it up again and say "and round". Next stage is after the first "round" when you turn it off give him time to prompt you to turn it on again, either by nudging you, vocalising or grabbing the fan. Later on you can expand the game to include things like "round and round and ALL fall down" (in which you fall gently on the floor), "round and round and up and down" (in which you stand up and sit down again) or anything else that takes your fancy.Connor talks at people. He never says hi and just rambles about something that happened to him. The teacher at the beginning of last year made a point to tell us that something was not right. After most of the year she got used to his quirks and ther was nothing wrong w/ him anymore. We are going to see how this year goes.
Tuhina engages in 1 hour MONOLOGUES even at us. And if you do not listen, she gets MAD.
She got a 50% time Special Ed. IEP ... 21 pages long.
Thanks to all of you for your help!Hi carters mommy! I used to let my ds do his stimming on certain toys/objects when he was younger. Heis almost 4 now and I have to stop him as soon as he gets a new fixation or it will get out of control and dominate him at times. Good luck!
I want to second everyone who mentioned Floortime or joining in with him.
We only have a play therapist. The state program brought in there Autism specialist and she said he was to social for him to be Autistic. She told me to do whatever I could to stop him from being repetitive and that I needed nanny 911. I was in shock. However, the play therapist said that she thinks he has PDD. I can not stop my son from all of these things. I would be in the crazy house. I honestly do not think she believes in the spectrum. She had been doing it for 20 years. She has since retired. Because of that she delayed us from calling Iowa City for an eval. We see them next month. Our older son has issues to and we are possibly looking into him as well. My only fear is that our newborn is going to go down this road. 5 years ago sensorial issues were not a hot topic..but looking back they would have classified my older son with the spectrum. Alot of speech and OT helped us. Now the waiting game on Carter.
Floor time is something I read about a while ago. We do alot of it. It took about a month for him to be interested in his train table. Now he plays like most kids. Well he says up and down alot. I tape baby einstien flash cards to the wall in his room and we go over the different kinds of animals. That took about 3 weeks of him banging his head.
Hopefully we can get him up to speed. Our older son is a little immature and as his social interactions become more complicated the truth starts to come out. Does any one know someone with a 7 year old w/ Aspergers???