Linda
Same with us, I haven't seen things lined up since age 2. Then all of sudden Andrew started lining things up again. Mainly his animals and his cars an we turned it into a zoo and a parking garage. Nikolas still hasn't gone back to lining things up. It comes and goes here too.My youngest rarely lines up toys anymore. However, he did just do it last week with a deck of cards. He also sometimes sorts toys by color, size, etc. heh, this is one of my lost memories, i asked my parents a weird question when i first joined this forum and read some posts, not knowing spinning stuff or lining things up was an ASD thing, I asked is I did this and she claimed that I did, which is weird i figured i would have a memory of it. Things do come and go, i think that is common. I dont think it means much of anything, but would love to, if they someday find out more about autism, find out why these individuals need to spin stuff or line them up, their are only theories, but their is a drive that made me spin myself that i clearly remember, but it i feel must be different then spinning or lining up toys...It think it's just an immature play style for kids with certain kinds of minds - future engineers, perhaps. My son (not asd) lined things up when he was a toddler and then went on to more imaginative play (though he's still more logical than imaginative and isn't one to pretend play - he like to build and model things, draw, play games (esp. Risk and Chess) - very left brained kid, like his dad.
So, I think if he's moved past lining things up, it just means that his play skills have hit a new developmental stage and he'll go on to more rich play. JMHO.
It think it's just an immature play style for kids with certain kinds of minds - future engineers, perhaps. My son (not asd) lined things up when he was a toddler and then went on to more imaginative play (though he's still more logical than imaginative and isn't one to pretend play - he like to build and model things, draw, play games (esp. Risk and Chess) - very left brained kid, like his dad.
So, I think if he's moved past lining things up, it just means that his play skills have hit a new developmental stage and he'll go on to more rich play. JMHO.
[/QUOTE]Mason used to do this ALL the time...I would have these huge lines going through my livingroom! Sometimes up the stairs and through the house. Whatever he was lining up he would go until there were none left. His favorite too was matchbox cars.
He did stop this probably around 3 1/2...he does more of the sorting thing now. No more lines through my house, just piles of sorted stuff!
It's so weird when you look back at all the little signs that were there but we didn't know it. DS could lay for hours sucking his thumb and looking at his lined up matchbox cars across the floor. That too curtailed for us as he got older but now he has to have groupings of things; colors that go together, or if things are out of place it really bothers him.My son still lines things up altho he does alot more of the sorting things into thier "families" as he calls them (same colors, same types of things etc.) His fridge phonics are still constantly always lined up tho. When he was younger hed line up his hotwheels too or his legos but hed also grab all his toys that were of similar sizes and line thos up even tho they wernt the same. I thought it was the cutest thing
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