Weird toddler behaviour with toy dinosaurs

[Rorpethy]

So ds is 2.5. He only says a few words and is obsessed with dinosaurs. He has a few favourites that go everywhere with him but recently, the obsession with the dinosaurs has reached a new level.

So he will sit on the sofa with all the dinosaurs on his lap and with arrange them in a certain way. (Just looks like a random pile to me) He gets very upset if they don't stay the way he wants them. He points at more dinosaurs, wanting me to pass them to him but it gets to the point where there are too many and he's completely covered in them and the pile falls over and he gets upset and starts screaming. He will sit for hours doing this.

He also wants to take the dinosaurs to bed but gets really angry if they don't stay the way he wants them. He wakes up in the night to rearrange them and again starts screaming if he can't find one or if one won't go the way he wants them too. The clanking of plastic all night long is really starting to get to me.

Does anyone else's toddler do this? I feel like he is never happy any more because he is always screaming because the dinosaurs aren't doing what he wants them to do. It's really draining.

.

He's 2. They do weird stuff and get frustrated when gravity occurs. Or are you wanting everyone to diagnose ASD because he only likes playing with dinosaurs?

Buy him a couple of stuffed dinosaurs and keep the rest out of his bedroom if they're keeping him awake.

Can you put all but a couple of them away? Try and distract him with something else?
Make a bed for them in a shoebox and put them to bed at night?
You need to step in to manage this.

Break the taking them to bed asap, he’s 2 - you are the parent.

Perhaps buy him a stuffed dinosaur for his bed?

Take them away at bedtime. Why would you let a child take lots of plastic toys into bed with him?

Weird behaviour from you not the child.

He's 2. They do weird stuff and get frustrated when gravity occurs.

Made me laugh but yes this is true!

You will drive yourself mad trying to analyse everything your toddler does. He obviously enjoys something about lining them up, and doesn't like something about when they fall down. That's ok - they don't understand gravity and need to work it out themselves.
They also don't know play unless they've been taught, this is his way of playing

What he is doing during the day is absolutely fine. But when it starts impacting routine, bedtime and sleep then that's when I would be stepping in and saying toys away and ask him to pick something less unsettling for bed.

To be honest. Two year old are weird.

The order would make perfect sense in your DCs head.

Half but not all could my 2 yr old, as pp said they are weird!

But the dinosaurs are causing a lot of problems including sleep so needs to be addressed.

I'd remove them all completely and permanently

We have done this with several things and i always tell dd the same thing "they moved to America and live there now"

Sounds like my 2.5 year old too. He also has a meltdown when his dinosaurs don’t stay up and he often arranges things in a particular way.

we don’t allow toys in bed though I can see how that’s a nightmare

On its own not too odd I wouldn't think.
I use to do that but with 7 specific teddies. Looked odd but in my toddler brain it was so I could see where they all were and I couldn't pick one to cuddle because I didn't want any feeling left out 😂 I use to wake up screaming when they moved in the night and my dad had to find them and reorder them..I thought a couple were gone gone, my toddler brain couldn't compute it's under the duvet.

Some odd things are just toddler logic and learning. It all came to an end when one went missing on holiday..I cried for weeks 😂😂 the devastation of them losing their brother ted.

2 years old are all very werid. But you have concerns about his behaviour and what stands out for for me is he has delayed language. Has he had a test and been refered to SALT? You also need to speak to your HV about your concerns about his behaviour even if it’s just for your piece of mind.

I feel like some of the comments on this thread are strangely unsupportive for no reason. This is chat not aibu.

My 2 year old also has few words (known to salt team but no progress with actually getting an appointment until 2.5. Has a hearing test referral). He can get frustrated if his toys don't do what he wants but actually for you to say he will sit and pile his dinosaurs for hours, no, I don't think that's 'usual' behaviour. To be fixated on one activity for hours at 2.5 is not something I've experienced with either of my children.

Hmm well my autistic daughter did do stuff like this but my other autistic daughter didn’t! In this sense and in this moment it doesn’t really matter what neurotype he may or may not be.

I feel “you’re the parent” “take control” comments aren’t especially helpful and suspect the people saying them have never experienced parenting a child like the OPs.

It’s especially hard at this age OP when the communication is so limited. When my daughter and I have bedtime problems now we talk and work something out but that’s not possible at 2 if they only have a few words.

you could try just removing them but I think that would be extremely distressing for him. It’s not something I would do or recommend. You could try getting him a more appropriate set of bedtime dinosaurs that are soft. You could try making his current dinosaurs a bed out of something and help him arrange them so they stay put. Basically I would try to work out what he’s trying to achieve and help him do that in a way that’s less distressing to him and you.

while the interest in dinosaurs may last this current interest in the sorting may change.

the need to sort and arrange is important here too so maybe some stacking dinosaur sets etc

A mum of a nearly three year old boy here. Not that unusual. My kid is a bit like this with his toys, not dinosaurs but with numbers games and Lego. Seems a bit ocd for want of a better term. Personally I put it down to toddlers being odd. I wouldn’t let him take them to bed, suffer the inevitable meltdown for a few nights. Put a stop to the daytime activity when they are getting upset when things ‘go wrong’ redirect them. It’s all phases.

A suggestion for the dinosaurs at night time - could they have their own bed where he can tuck them in before he goes to bed? Even just a towel for them to lie on, and another towel for a blanket? That would save you from listening to the rattling of plastic all night! Must be driving you nuts at this point!

I've no idea about whether this behaviour is anything to worry about, but speak to your GP or HV if you have concerns.

Does he go to nursery? If not that might help as you’d have professionals to sound off and they’d introduce other activities etc. at my DD nursery 2.5 there is a non verbal boy and a little boy with Down’s syndrome it’s interesting how supportive the other children are towards each other too. I’d try and give him soft bedtime dinosaur- you might also want to check out Dunelm they’ve got fab dinosaur bedding and wall stickers. You could also watch Peppa he might enjoy relating to George.

I think at 2.5 this could just be normal irrational toddler behaviour. They don't fully understand concepts like time, space, gravity but do get obsessed with things. It's normal for them to want to take or wear their favourite things to bed.

find him a basket to keep them in, or a bucket!
agree, a soft dinosaur for bed,
and a special bed of their own - the basket - for the plastic dinosaurs

My eldest DS (now 24) did this with cars. My youngest DS (21) had an obsession with trying to make his tweenie dolls stand up straight.

Or if you want to introduce some different toys, get some Duplo or wooden blocks and build a house for them with him. We found Duplo easier at that age as it's clipped together, DD always knocked the wooden blocks over when getting her dinos out.

I think you need to discuss your concerns with a professional. Does he go to childcare? Have you spoken to anybody about his language

Unnecessarily rude response. The OP didn’t ask about ASD she came on a parenting forum and asked for thoughts on a specific behaviour that is concerning her. Something people have done everyday on here in the twenty years I’ve been on here 🙄

I agree, I think some people on this thread seem to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed!

OP, it's very hard to say whether or not a single behaviour should be a cause for concern. I'd say it's unusual to do this for hours and through the night - but then, most children don't have all their toys in bed with them like this so they wouldn't have the opportunity to play all night.

It is normal to a degree for toddlers to like arranging things, but when it gets obsessive and prolonged, that could be unusual.

It's impossible to say without knowing the child and knowing the wider context of his development - and even then, at 2.5 years, it's unlikely that ASD would be diagonsed. It would probably just be watchful waiting to see how he goes over the next year.

You could take him to the GP for a chat and see what they say. If his language seems delayed, I would definitely recommend requesting a referral to speech & language therapy.

He only says a few words and he engages in this stacking behaviour for hours, as well as waking up at night to do it - I can’t believe how many ‘oh it’s not unusual’ responses you’re getting.

Yes two year olds are weird, mine wanted to sleep in a pair of goggles for one phase (no I didn’t allow it but we had some serious tantrums as a result), but the above factors are well worth speaking to a professional about. Nobody is asking that previous, very abrupt, poster to ’diagnose autism’, but as someone who worked in Early Years for many years and still involved to some extent, those two things would be raising some flags for me.

The process of getting referrals, support and diagnosis for any kind of neurodiversity or additional need is shamefully long and complicated - we’re not doing OP or her son any favours by dismissing her concerns out of hand - I’m not saying there will be any diagnosis here, it may well be just a particular quirk which her DS eventually moves on from as his language develops, but it may not and it’s well worth speaking to the health visitor, nursery if one is involved, or GP.

Read him Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs he'd love it.

Buy him a bucket to put them in at night.

And a teddy dino for bed.