lining toy cars up

[skybluepearl]

anyone have thoughts about why toddlers line toy cars up and is is a more female or male activity?

no idea, but my son did this with plastic animals

Definately more male.

Why do they do it? Dunno, but it gave me hours of peace.

mine has just recently started doing it - we have about 25 cars lined up at the mo - not in any colour or shape order i hasten to add.

mmmm
I have 3 girls and they have all passed thru that stage. don't think it's exclusively a boy thing

only one of my 3 boys has done it...

Yes my ds did it, got very upset if one moved!

do you think kids who line up cars tend to be more tidy?

Errr, my ds is 8 now and his room is a tip

no lol

It's a schema thing, isn't it?

I thought all toddlers did it in one form or another, some may line up cars, others might arrange toys on the floor to look like something..

I used to spend ages lining up small little toys in long snaking lines and then slowly moving them one by one across game board squares...I would spend an entire day at it... interestingly my dd is showing the same tendencies at 2... I think it's a stage, it's about ordering (but not necessarily sorting, and maybe even counting a bit like I have ALL of THESE and I can move them here and move them there, but I still have ALL of THESE

Both my boys have done it - no girls so can't compare really.

my little girl lines up her toys. she sorts things out by type. instead of drawing she used to take the lids off the pens and line them up - pens on one side, tops on the other.

DS destroys her 'ordering' and makes her very angry.

he likes holding the same toy all day.

Neither of mine did it, but both liked to take small pieces of lots of different types of toy and put them in boxes. So I would lose one jigsaw piece, one bit of lego, a playmobil animal, and bits and pieces from twenty other toys and never be able to tidy up properly.

They also posted things obsessively into holes or gaps.

DS2 made the same lego structure repeatedly for several months consisting of four yellow bricks and a green brick.

Sometimes DS lines cars up, sometimes he arranges them into a big square block and says 'Look Mummy, I've made Sainsbury's car park!'

My friend's little boy does the same, and he did it at creche once. When she went to pick him up, the creche worker took her to one side and said 'You should watch out, lining stuff up is a sign of autism.' Idiot.

both my sons did this

lol my ds aged 2 and half does this every day with matchbox cars.if one rolls away or someone moves one he sometimes has a massive tantrum and cries.Its so odd!
Thank god hes not the only one!

Look up 'trajectory schema' on google, you should be able to find some suggestions for other things a child that enjoys lining cars up will like to do.

All my girls have done this.

All my girls have pig-sty bedrooms too!

schemas and child development

good link bald/jade

Ha, and those two things are connected how, Anna?! What a random statement...

Just to confirm that obsessively lining toys up but not playing with them appropriately or imaginatively is one of the many signs of autism! My DS2 is autistic and did this. He never pushed then along and said 'brum brum' though. There are lots of things that point to autism and you would need to tick a lot of boxes to start getting worried. Nearly every sign would be something a NT child could do. It's the sheer quantity and intensity that is different. I got sick of well meaning friends saying ' oh, but surely all children do that?' Not quite like my DS they didn't!

thanks girls. loved the schema/developmental link and also thanks for your imput ellen.