Any ideas with regards to this behaviour?

[wrinklytum]

DD is nearly 2 and has a global delay.It is becoming increasingly apparent that her behaviour is quite unusual.She is absolutely obsessed with reflective surfaces/mirrors.If I leave her to have the freedom of downstairs I can guarantee she will be found sat in front of the oven door gazing at her reflection and waving and shreiking at herself.Ditto if upstairs she will always gravitate to the full length mirror in our bedroom.Her other obsessions are water (has just realised she can turn the taps on when in bath) banging objects together,and pressing buttons (TV,mobile etc).It is all so repetitive.Has anybody come across behaviour like this????

[wrinklytum]

Thanks MJIM,global delay is a term doctors give you when your child has a delay in reaching milestones in all areas ie physical/speech/social development (though dd is a very sociable,responsive girl in her way)but don't know the cause.It is just that the behaviour is VERY repetitive.She has definite speech and physical delay,but the repetitive behaviours are new.Thanks for reply.xx

[wrinklytum]

Bump,anyone?

[yurt1]

DS1 does it a lot- he's always loved mirrors and seeks out reflections. He often carries a little mirror around with him to look at stuff from different angles. If play is delayed then children tend to do what I've heard termed 'sensory muckaround' which is this type of thing.

DS1 spends hours at the moment filling and emptying sinks - he loves to watch the water from the tap, and the water going down the drain and will fill and empty repeatedly.

I let him be repetitive providing it doesn't send him 'over' (sometimes he can get very agitated). As soon as he stops being calm abut it I try to remove him from whatever he's stuck with.

[perpetualworrier]

I can only speak for my 2, but at 2 years old, I thought they all like order and routine = repetition.

At 4 the youngest still loves to pull faces at himself in the mirror, water and taps hold endless facination and neither of them had many words at their 2nd birthdays, but both are above average at school now.

Obviously if you've had an "expert" diagnosis, you have to go with that, but it doesn't sound that unusual to me.

[yurt1]

Does she have any more imaginative play? DS1 doesn't really.
Have a search for the PLAY website- their video is good as well- they have video of trying to move children on from this sort of sensory muckaround type stuff, and engaging a child who is stuck in the repetitive stuff. Google PLAY and autism, if that doesn't work PLAY, floortime and autism and you should get it (it'll be good for GDD as well as ASD). t

[yurt1]

It's not so much the obsessiveness - it;s the exclusivity- if this is the ONLY type of play then its a symptom, if it's just a part of a play repertoire then its normal.

[wrinklytum]

Thanks YurtxxHave bought dd a compact mirror for her birthday so she can gaze at herself!

Perpetual,my dd has vey limited words,and glue ear.She also has balance issues,can't crawl properly,or walk,hand contractures,excessive drooling,etc etc so there is definitely something non typical there.

[yurt1]

they've changed the website but here's the Play project

[yurt1]

ds1 would love a compact :-)

[wrinklytum]

She doesn@t really have "Imaginative" play.She will "walk" ds Spiderman or toy animals along a surface repetitively,she will spin wheels on cars and roll them on the ground.She bangs blocks together but doesn't build.She will try to do shapesorters but always try to put all the shapes in the same hole.With jigsaws she will again try to put all pieces in the same place,no discrimination.She will cuddle her dolls but only if prompted ditto with actions such as "dance" when she waves her arms around (bless) or "clap" and she will clap.

[wrinklytum]

Thanks for link,Yurt,much appreciated xx

[wrinklytum]

bUMP FOR LATE NIGHTERS

[jamila169]

Wrinkly, The mirrors thing seems pretty typical for her age, my DD 2.5 would gaze at herself all day if she had a chance. The other things are on the range of normal(repetition and being somewhat obsessive) but the glue ear would seem to be a major factor in some of what is happening,are you gettin some action on that, as it seems to be something that gets left and at her age not being able to hear properly (imagine washing machine noises in your head, drowning out the sounds around you)is a huge huge problem in gaining speech and can affect your balance. I had problems from a very early age with my ears and I was 7 by the time I had grommets in, My speech was very loud and mumbly and I fell over regularly - that improved no end when i had the grommets in, but unfortunately my hearing was permanently damaged-I was just lucky that i learned to speak and walk before the worst of it kicked in.

[yurt1]

wrinklytum- that sounds like ds1- he would occasionally feed a doll for example, and now - after many years of teaching he will push a train round a track. he loves dolls houses, and will put the furniture in and out but also just likes to look at it from different angles.

I haven't looked around the new PLAY website, but I'd recommend their video/CD ROM thing if its still available, it was far cheaper than these things usually are and when they sent me 2 by mistake they told me to keep the other one (I gave it away or you could have had it). Lots of ideas - for turning say repetititve splashing into something more communicative/playful; ds1 was a bit old for it, but it would be great for pre-schoolers.

I've decided I'm going to get ds1 a compact for his stocking. He'll spend xmas day checking out angles in the house.