Thank you both. I think I understand what is going on better and maybe can be of more help.
My son was "obsessed" with trains since he is like 2 years old. No he is 4 and tired of trains. He even told me yesterday he wants new toys and is tired of his trains. No whe more into buses and emergency trucks. Gets really excited when he see's firetrucks,police cars or hear the sirens. I dont mind at all. Cause now he understand what these emergency trucks are for since he is verbal now. So i try to make it a conversation and explain what they are for. Obsessions so go away as they grow,so i wouldnt worry. Thats part of who they are. My son still tells me he wants to be an MTA train or bus driver, haha!
It's a well-documented fact that most kids with Asperger's have an Obsession/perseverative interest in a particular topic. The difference between a healthy obsession and the Asperger variety is usually based on whether there's any reciprocity and/or ability to disconnect and talk about something else. Thomas the Train, in particular, is an obsession for many Asperger's children. But kids with that type of interest may have trouble talking about any other topic, may literally have to carry a train around all day, may have a lot of rituals revolving around their particular interest. IN short, it can be a crutch getting in the way of normal, healthy social development.
my son has been obsessed with traffic signs for a little over a year now. He knows every sign in the neighborhood, and their individual markings. for instance one stop sign around the corner is faded to orange from the son. My son knows what street it is on and at what corner I've become so tired of the signs, I just hate them now. But he keeps going strong. He looks at images on the computer and we also have to make signs daily out of sticks and contruction paper.
At one point I thought this was unhealthy for him and I wanted to insist he end this obsession but Over time i have realized he is learning alot from this. One example is that i've handed him the scissors and said you need to start cutting out the signs on your own. He was resistant but Now he will and his cutting skills have improved greatly, also coloring them in, reading them and our next step is understanding them. this obsession has also built up his computer skills because he likes to look at images on computer and is pointing and clicking really well.
My point is, think about the obsession and see what your child has gained from it and what He CAN gain from it, There may be alot that he can learn from that one obsession. Even if you are just printing out images for him to color, thatt would be practicing coloring skills for him, or like i said earlier cutting them out.
another thing we have done here is miniatures, tiny little signs he likes to look at have built his fine motor skills.
I know how frustrating it is as a parent and how tiring it can become but when you see your child learning new skills its all worth it.
good luck
The National Autistic Society in the UK has a good article on this subject. Here's their summary (you can read the details of each point at their website, link given below).
Source: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=528&a=7103
How do you help your kids deal with obsessions? Our 3 1/2 year-old has been obsessed with cars for years. He talks about them, wants to touch them, even pretends that legos are cars. He has other obsessions as well. Yes, they wax and wane in intensity, but having obsessions is probably his most salient problem. We've tried ignoring them, tried to extend conversations about them, and we've tried redirecting him to other topics/actions. Is there anything else to try?Today I ran across an info sheet called "Obsessive Topics" on an autism website. here's the link:
http://www.autismhelp.info/htm/printfiles_index.htm