Toys and autism

Sometimes I feel toys and autism are a strange subject.  You see, with autism the child develops differently to other children because of how their brain is wired.  And it REALLY isn’t the same.  I looked after plenty of children in my life and I knew Johnathan is different.  You can see little or big things.

One of the things about children on the spectrum and their toys is when they line them up in rows.  And you must remember exactly where everything was placed when they were playing with the toys last.  In fact, the very first time I took Johnathan to the shoe shop, I think I already told you that he took ALL the shoes on display that he could reach off the different shelves and lined them up along the edge of the pouffes that were in the room.  I apologised to the workers in the shop and said that he was doing it because he was on the spectrum.

Let me talk to you about cars.  Cars, cars, cars.  Every room in the house ended up with toy CARS in them.  And they were lined up in rows - or some were put inside a lorry thing that had spaces for them.  He would either lie or kneel down on the floor next to them and push them forward and backwards with his head to one side and his ear to the floor.  This I have never seen another child do.  And the nursery workers said they had never seen it either.

Autistic children go through different obsessions with toys.  And they have certain similarities of choice.  They also tend to want to keep toys longer than children who are not on the spectrum.  For example, when he was 9 months old and started standing to walk, we got him a toy train with a handle they can hold onto to help them balance.  And it was only a year or so ago that Johnathan finally agreed to get rid of it.

I have seen multiple YouTube videos with autistic people and they ALL had or still have a plushie obsession.  No, I haven’t chosen to watch them, Johnathan has showed them to me countless times.  And when I have seen videos they have shown photos of their collection - one of them has even shown photos of him sitting in a basket of plushies as a child.  When I have been in hospital I have found other parents of autistic children either in the medical staff or patients.  They have ALL told me either they don’t know where to put them, told me ways they have fitted them in their house, or asked for ideas of ways to incorporate them in the house without them completely taking over.

I know this doesn’t cover everything about toys and autistic children.  But this gives you a flavour of the difficulties parents face with autistic children in the family and these are some of the reasons WHY your child is different and you can’t have someone who is “a little bit autistic” or “have autism traits.”