How quickly do your child's 'special interests' come on?

MaryQueenofKnots · 2023-12-23T22:54:06+00:00

Completely normal day, DD8 buzzing around, doing whatever. Suddenly BAM she developed a new special interest. Now she has rewritten her Christmas list to include all items relating to the special interest. She has spoken about it none stop since that moment. Googled it. It's just so all consuming! I just know we are going to spend all of Christmas hearing about it! I know this is probably ASD related but just wanted to hear others perspectives. I know it will blow over in a week or two

BabyYoshke · 23/12/2023 22:58

My dc has ASD and has had the same interest since the age of 2. Other interests have come and gone over the years but the main special interest is still there at the age of 15. DC would also decide on his Christmas list on 26 December for the following year and stick to it religiously. Less so in the last couple of years.

Trying2310 · 23/12/2023 23:07

Son 13 ASD and ADHD. New special interests every month or so. Totally obsessed, spends hours on google researching and all he can talk about. He tries to get us to spend loads of money on new interests but soon dies down after a couple of weeks and he moves onto something else. We have learnt not to invest in each new interest otherwise we would be bankrupt!

Merryoldgoat · 23/12/2023 23:14

My older boy has had cars as his big interest since 2 (he’s 10 now) but others come on seemingly overnight and last a few months or so.

Dr Who appeared out of nowhere about 3 weeks ago. I hate Dr Who.

determinedtomakethiswork · 23/12/2023 23:51

My sister is like this, though, she isn't diagnosed with autism and I hadn't thought of her as being autistic. She does have these interests though where she gets so absorbed in them she can't think of anything else at all and as soon as she moves on to one, she completely forgets the previous one, even though she might have spent a lot of money on it, and certainly every waking thought for months. I had wondered whether it was ADHD. Does anyone know if that's similar in this way?

FizzyStream · 24/12/2023 00:35

determinedtomakethiswork · 23/12/2023 23:51

My sister is like this, though, she isn't diagnosed with autism and I hadn't thought of her as being autistic. She does have these interests though where she gets so absorbed in them she can't think of anything else at all and as soon as she moves on to one, she completely forgets the previous one, even though she might have spent a lot of money on it, and certainly every waking thought for months. I had wondered whether it was ADHD. Does anyone know if that's similar in this way?

I have ADHD and so does my son and we have special interests 😊 mine currently is the Tudors. DS2's is football stickers.

Coyoacan · 24/12/2023 02:37

Are only people with ASD supposed to have special interests?

My dd first showed her love of dance at the age of two and a half and is a professional dancer now.

Fionaville · 24/12/2023 02:49

Yes my DS obsessions can come on quite quickly and I can't predict what they are going to be. He does tend to keep them for a long time though (some he's had for years, hes a young adult now) but even when they are no longer an obsession, he is still interested in them, so nothing is wasted. Fortunately, they don't usually involve buying much at all. I sometimes wish they did, he'd be easier to buy presents for!

FacingTheWall · 24/12/2023 04:29

Dd has intense periods of hyperfocus, where she’ll study everything about a subject 24/7 for a few days, and then drop it just as quickly. Thankfully it’s never taken over her Christmas lists!

determinedtomakethiswork · 24/12/2023 05:21

Coyoacan · 24/12/2023 02:37

Are only people with ASD supposed to have special interests?

My dd first showed her love of dance at the age of two and a half and is a professional dancer now.

That's completely different though. I thought the whole point of a special interest in this sort of case was that it chops and changes and comes on suddenly. A career in dancing is completely different!

BumbleShyBee · 24/12/2023 05:25

My son's (ASD, AdHD) stay for a long time. Years. The first aid one was interesting 😬 My daughter's (ADHD and possibly mild ASD) are much shorter but more intense. Could last a week / two but she really gets into them.

SonicAllanKey · 24/12/2023 05:48

My son will discover something and learn about it seemingly overnight. Dinosaurs has been a big one since he was 3 and is expanding as he grows into paleobotany and wider knowledge of the different ages and types of animal. it astounds me how much he knows at 9.

we watched Star Wars a New Hope a while ago and overnight he became star wars obsessed too. that made birthday and christmas pretty easy.

autienotnaughty · 24/12/2023 06:01

My sins main interest is Mario it's been that way for two years.

But he will have other interests like a few weeks ago he played with some dice and now he's obsessed with what's the highest number he can get with 9 dice

Original poster

MaryQueenofKnots · 24/12/2023 08:21

Thanks for all your replies. Yes I wonder if it's the speed and intensity I struggle with. She was into something completely different last week! That became all consuming.

OP posts:

CharmingChinchilla · 24/12/2023 08:35

DD's (16 yo, autistic) current special interest is music CDs. She has rearranged her room to accommodate her "collection". She asked me yesterday if I'd got her any CDs for Christmas. Except... this obsession started on Tuesday last 🙄

It's a rollercoaster 😁

Spendonsend · 24/12/2023 08:50

Seemingly overnight. Some last a very long time. Others just a few weeks. Some are recurring and reappear after break of a year. They are all consuming.

Mumof2NDers · 24/12/2023 08:57

determinedtomakethiswork · 23/12/2023 23:51

My sister is like this, though, she isn't diagnosed with autism and I hadn't thought of her as being autistic. She does have these interests though where she gets so absorbed in them she can't think of anything else at all and as soon as she moves on to one, she completely forgets the previous one, even though she might have spent a lot of money on it, and certainly every waking thought for months. I had wondered whether it was ADHD. Does anyone know if that's similar in this way?

My DN is 16 and is autistic. She had had the same special interest since she was about 7.
My DS is 16 and has ADHD. His special interests last a couple of months. He will read everything he can about it, watch videos on YouTube and will talk about nothing else.
We’ve had
Extreme weather
The holocaust
World war 2 in general
Russia
Ronaldo
And many more.
His newest one is the army. He’s adamant he’s joining the army. I’m not 100% happy about it so we’ve compromised. He’s applying for the army foundation college in Harrogate. He keeps telling me it’s not a passing thing, he really wants to be in the army so I suppose I’ll have to wait and see.

Daftasabroom · 24/12/2023 09:04

AS DC - maths and linguistics aged 1 1/2. Patterns basically. He's doing one those at Oxbridge.

Ozgirl75 · 24/12/2023 09:04

My 13 year old gets special interests but he’s not autistic and doesn’t have ADHD either. We had;
Age 18 months - 3 Cars
4-5 dinosaurs
5-7 on and off Pokemon
9-11 space
11- now aeroplanes and travel.
This recent one is the longest and most in depth, I assume because he’s older. He is now certain he wants to be a pilot but he was also certain he wanted to be an astrophysicist for a time. I guess I just have to hope he has a good interest when he’s choosing university courses or careers 😁

He’s generally quite interested in lots of things though and learns and retains facts very easily.
I was the same as a child too: learnt everything about horses, ballet, plants, countries etc.