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.

What an unnecessary, bitchy comment. Why?

Can I add my son took a potato to bed with him for a while and got very upset when it went manky. Toddlers do the most random things.
He doesn't believe me when I tell him these stories now.

yes asd can be diagnosed at 2.5 especially with language delay

Sounds like a schema - you an Google schematic play in early yrs & find lots of info. Perfectly normal part of any child's development. It's their brains working out how the world is organised through playing, will keep repeating this schema until ready to move onto a different type of play.
You should be able to find lots of tips on how to extend they play beyond just positioning the dinosaurs.

www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/schematic-play

A very unfriendly thread. Everyone just dismissing it as average 2 year old stuff I have a 2 year old and mum friends and im not sure I agree. I don't know any 2 year old that will do anything for hours and hours. When you say only a few words - how many? Can he communicate what he wants to happen with you through gesture or anything?

I imagine you don't take the dinosaurs away becUse your child gets very stressed. Can you make a very organised space for the dinosaurs? Or if there are too many a labelled basket? Part of his bedtime routine could be putting them away.

I agree with this. Yes, 2yos are weird little creatures, but a few things here a worthy of further investigation: the hyper-focus for a long time on one repetitive task - hours and in the middle of the night, the extreme response when they fall down, and the delayed speech.

That's not 'standard' 2yo behaviour IME and warrants further investigation.

2 year olds are bananas. My DS used to tell his toys to get up and walk to him whenever he dropped them and would get incredibly angry when they stayed still on the floor. He would also lose the plot entirely whenever we made cakes and it was time to put them in the oven. Every time! Gah! Why not take the plastic toys off him at bedtime? Perhaps you could suggest the dinosaurs have a bedtime routine to follow too?

That all being said - if you are genuinely worried, then seeking some professional advice would be a good idea. Parenthood does throw up these situations that sometimes you’re just not sure about.

Does he struggle with transitions usually?

It sounds like he's using the dinosaurs as a transitional object but doesn't understand thst they won't stay the same way because he's too young to understand things like gravity, so the change is just causing more distress.

My son is autistic and did similar and only had a handful of words until he was almost 5. We would get in bed to cuddle and he would want my arm to be in a position it could physically not sustain and would get very upset if I couldn't hold it like that for longer than a minute.

You've not given us much information to go off, but I would slowly phase out those dinosaurs and phase in a bigger dinosaur teddy. Transitional objects are so important to some children, especially if they have a deep rooted interest in something, like dinosaurs. Trouble transitioning does not mean he's autistic on its own.

I would also be asking about the autism diagnostic pathway, because we can't diagnose, but it can be a long wait so it's worth getting on it ASAP. It will include getting under a speech and language therapist, getting their reports, if he's in a nursery they will need to do early help meetings and provide feedback reports of behaviours at their setting, they will need to allow time to pass to see if anything changes, and he may be invited to do a play based assessment.

If his sleep is being impacted, his speech is still very limited, he's struggling with transitions, he has a deeply restricted interest (in that it restricts him from doing other things like sleeping), and this is a very typical day for him there is no harm in asking about getting assessed.

Noisy toys are not for bedtime. Take them away. Get him a stuffed dinosaur for bed.

Sounds a bit extreme, removing and getting rid of them!

Put a dinosaur shelf up in his bedroom. He can order them however he likes before bed, then they can stay as they are until morning

2yos are all mad… it’s impossible to rationalise with their brains. This will pass. I would gently try and establish a system for bedtime where they’re all lined up on a shelf or in a ‘bed’ (box) where he can safely tuck them in and see them from his cot / bed.

my three very typical children all went through phases of being obsessed with particular toys and being particularly stressed about where and how they were. Is it a means of establishing control over his environment perhaps? Are there other things he could ‘manage’ around his bedroom - letting him choose some glow in the dark star or dino stickers for his bedroom wall? putting up a dino poster somewhere he can see it?

This sounds very similar to my nephew. He had very little language, arranged things in order that seemed to make no obvious sense and is obsessed with dinosaurs. He was seeing a speech therapist and making little progress.

I recently watched him set out his letters from a-z and name a dinosaur for every letter.

We think it's come from one of his toys. There are lots of dinosaur alphabet toys, from flash cards to things that play electronic sounds and dinosaur names.

It’s also possible he doesm’t like dinosaurs, finds them scary which they must stay in a specific position. DSD like that with teddies lol - only improved when we put them away

After working with toddlers and kinder kids in childcare for over a decade, this dinosaur phase is something I have seen most kids (maybe even all) go through at varying degrees.

Also, tantrums are very normal for this age. Getting frustrated because things aren’t doing what they are supposed to e.g. staying up instead of falling down. I’ve seen this millions of times. Increasing autonomy but still developing their motor skills.

The playing for hours with only one type of toy or activity, not all toddlers do this but many do go through that phase. I’ve seen toddlers spend the entire time at childcare playing with their favourite toys/activity and only stopped because of pack up time to either go outside or have a routine like meals or nap time. I’ve seen toddlers that go from one activity to another and sometimes only spend 5 seconds playing with something.

I also remember the obsessions with cars, trains, trucks, planes etc. In the 3-5 year group the becoming a little expert on one area of interest and talking nonstop about it.

Embrace it. It’s awesome. And can be quite funny sometimes.

However, I agree with pp about setting the (appropriate for age and stage of development) boundaries that you want as a parent. So, if you don’t want plastic toys in bed, set that as a rule that you are consistent with. Compromise by getting him a soft toy dinosaur for bedtime.

Here is an interesting link about the dinosaur phase:

https://explorers.com.au/family/blog/children-and-the-dinosaur-phase-the-benefits-of-fascination/