Little boys lining things up...

[Sickboy]

Hi. Haven't posted for a while. Still here, though. Ma boy is 3 years and 3 months, now. As you can all imagine, it's getting tough in lots of new, mostly special, ways.

I was wondering - someone told me that there was a developmental term (jargon) for the phenomenon of 2ish-year-old boys lining up all their trucks/diggers/whatever on a surface and then, sort of, surveying their charges - like putting their toys on parade or something.

Has anyone heard of this? Please tell me I'm not going loopy.

My son, Tom, went through a big Bob The Builder phase when he was two (he's now into Toy Story, naturally) and the line-up thing was a big part of his play.

Just sayin'.


Anyone?


Cheers.

SB

[BadHair]

Oh good grief, everyone on the behaviour topic tonight has a ds like mine!
Yup, ds1 (3 yrs 2 months) lines up his cars and trucks, either nose to tail like a big traffic jam, or tightly packed side by side, like Asda carpark. I don't know if there's a term for it, but I just assumed that he was copying what he saw around him when he went in the car (ie traffic jams and car parks).

[Festivefly]

Oh yes yes yes i think its called carpark syndrome

[twiglett]

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[hmb]

Ds is now 3.75 and he is now doing this sort of thing less, but it was a big thing for him from 2 onwards. With him it was trains. He has now moved onto thunderbirds and star wars (from t the t, and toystory) so now every thing flys, normaly into something , with a loud noise!

[Sickboy]

Ach. Just read somewhere about it being a potential early sign of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Sounds a bit harsh to me...

[BadHair]

Just reminded me that over Christmas ds1 kept taking all the characters out of the nativity scene and lining them up on the mantelpiece facing the wall. I don't know why he did it, but it looked like they were in front of a firing squad!
Kept me amused while stuffing the turkey anyway.

[Tinker]

Little girls do it too...

[GeorginaA]

Ds (2.5) has done this from a very early age too. I very much doubt he's a closet obsessive compulsive

[JanH]

carpark syndrome sounds exactly right, FF! ds2 used to play airports, with ALL his cars, lorries, planes etc, not lined up but crammed together like a carpark only without space to move. The ones in the middle would have had a looooong wait to go home.

ds1's thing was Thomas the Tank - he used to go to bed and line them up on the mattress next to him.

[hana]

dd does this too ( 2.3) with her dolls all lined up 'asleep', or her shoes, our shoes, her little people from various farms and houses, etc. Thought this was normal and now I know it is!

[WideWebWitch]

Yes, my ds used to do this too. He'd make a traffic jam and tell me it was the North Circular. Not surprising since that was where we spent most of our time in those days

[Jimjams]

Do you mean schemas? There is a lining up schema.

It is meant to be a sign of autism but my autistic son has never lined anything up in his life (much to the clinical psychologists disgust- "are you sure?" His normal younger brother lines everything up to make trains. Autistic ds1 spends the whole time messing up ds2's trains.

Same in my friend's house. Her autistic dd will sometimes line up dogs but itsn't that bothered - a pile will do, whilst her normal younger brother lines up cars.

[suzywong]

my DS1 did it this evening with family phots, turning portrait or landscape the same way so the form would match.

[150percent]

We have to park Ds's fire engines in line by his bed each night - though I've banned a little one after stepping on it one night in bare feet - ouch!

[marthamoo]

Both my boys have done this at around 2+ years of age. In fact I have a line of Bob the Builder vehicles on my hearth right now!

With ds1 I used to draw car parking bays on a massive piece of paper and he would put each car in a bay and then just sit and look at them. We bought him a garage for Christmas but he never did play with it..just couldn't compete with my lines on a piece of paper!

[suzywong]

that is a great idea marthamoo

[Dannie]

DS1 just grew out of this and the house is much messier!

[Davros]

My autistic son never did this either....

[Jimjams]

I suppose if they did Davros we could always have a holiday by the seaside, a change of scene etc etc

[Paula71]

Wow I never heard of this before!

My ds twin2 does this and I thought he was just particular about his toys! He has been doing it for a good few months, they are just turned 2 now. All the little cars and trucks and (yes) Bob The Builder's vehicles (sometimes Bob too!) get lined up, all facing outward, neighbours get a daily show of toys along the window sill!

Ds twin1 prefers to put them nose to tail or to walk a few steps behind his brother taking all the carefully placed toys down. You can imagine what happens next!

[Azure]

How funny, my DS (2y4m) has done this for some time. His bath toys are still lined up on the bath from last night (where they "watched" him take the plug out) and the people from his play house are all in line on the playtable. All facing the same way, naturally. I thought it was just him!

[zebra]

My girl lines up since before 2yo, my boy (now 4yo) never has. I thought it was a girl thing!