Is this unusual play?

[Anonymous]

25 month old wants to play with the vacuum cleaner and the dishwasher. Pressing dishwasher buttons. Plugging in the vacuum cleaner and actually vacuuming, pushing it around. Will not play with a pretend toy vacuum cleaner. I should say he is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner so we have to hide it. Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

Very normal.

[Anonymous]

Yep. Some gets get obsessed with trains, some with rocks.

[Anonymous]

Typical behavior for all children, special needs or not.

[Anonymous]

This by itself would not concern me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This by itself would not concern me.

Explain please. He is also speech delayed, lack of pointing and waving, hand leading instead.

[Anonymous]

Kids can tell the difference between toys and the real thing. They want to emulate the adults around them with the real stuff. Perfectly normal.

There may be other things that are worrisome, but this isn't one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This by itself would not concern me.

Explain please. He is also speech delayed, lack of pointing and waving, hand leading instead.

DP. As you probably know, kids on the spectrum tend to obsessively focus on things. So do neurotypical kids. That’s why you look at signs holistically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This by itself would not concern me.

Explain please. He is also speech delayed, lack of pointing and waving, hand leading instead.

This is what I would speak to the doctor about. All kids - NT and SN - get fixated on what they want and it's sometimes just where they are in their development or indicative of the fact that they are stubborn. If there are concerning behaviors that is what you should focus on.

[Anonymous]

No experience with SN-related diagnoses and supports. If your spidey sense is telling you there might be something going on, it doesn’t hurt to get another care provider’s opinion.

But in the meantime, I highly recommend getting him a lightweight cordless stick vac of his own. He can push it around and “help” (or maybe even actually help) clean. And the battery will run down right around the time you get tired of it.

Signed,
A mom who parlayed her kid’s interest in grownup machines and chores into an extra pair of vacuuming and laundry hands

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids can tell the difference between toys and the real thing. They want to emulate the adults around them with the real stuff. Perfectly normal.

There may be other things that are worrisome, but this isn't one.

+1 I don’t buy toy household things. It’s easier to just start teaching my kids to help with chores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This by itself would not concern me.

Explain please. He is also speech delayed, lack of pointing and waving, hand leading instead.

In that case I would contact early intervention.

[Anonymous]

This is normal and demonstrates that the child is imitating you and understands what the vacuum is for. All good things.

[Anonymous]

It is not really helpful to tell OP this is all fine and typical. It really is not. Incessant button pushing and limited and interests together with the other things she is talking about are absolutely signs of autism. How does it help to sugar coat that? OP you are a great mom, contact child find in your county and start and eval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not really helpful to tell OP this is all fine and typical. It really is not. Incessant button pushing and limited and interests together with the other things she is talking about are absolutely signs of autism. How does it help to sugar coat that? OP you are a great mom, contact child find in your county and start and eval.

+1