My 1 year old loves wheels

[QueenKong]

Really loves them. He likes flipping stuff over and spinning the wheels. He also runs his little cars up and down the hallway. He loves anything that spins - fans, a plastic windmill etc. He does like other toys (shape sorters, keys etc) and books too, but wheels are his first love.

Does this sound normal? Someone mentioned ASD and wheel obsessions and now I'm frightened. We were at a 1st birthday party and the other kids were climbing etc while DS played with the trucks. He does different stuff with the wheels (spins them, pushes the toys etc) and you can distract him from it. And he does get bored eventually. He will also bring his cars over to show me every once in a while.

You've just described my 21 month old ds!

Oooh he sounds just like DS1 (13 next week). At age one he had an impressive collection of windmills in the garden. He used to walk along and spin each one and say roundandround.

We used to have to take him to Halfords to look at the tyres and wheels.

He still loves cars now, windmills not so much.

Is it just a bit thing then? His father is very into "how things work" so maybe it's that.

It all sounds fine to me, he has found something he likes. Get down to the garden centre and get some windmills for the garden.

He has one windmill that he spins and we took him to the farm the other day, where he ignored the animals in favour of the tractor.

So now he has a toy tractor that he carries everywhere and throws hissy fits when I won't let him take it in the bath or in bed with us (co-sleeping). I am not waking up with a tractor embedded in my arse cheek.

well i do have experience as you mentioned with the ASD and the spinning/revolving thing, but also think it could well be his thing right now as others have said.

Thanks piratecat. Is there any sort of specific behaviour I should look out for re the spinning? He doesn't just sit making the same repetitive movements, he looks like he is sort of trying to figure them out IYSWIM. Or is just liking wheels in general a trait that is common in ASD?

If he's including you in his fascination that's showing an appropriate social awareness? I saw footage of ds at 11 months sitting and spinning the wheels of dd's toy pram. Ds is 5 now and not asd as far as I can tell. Lots of kids toys do/have spinning things because it's something kids generally like observing I guess. A bit like shiny or noisy things?

Yeah I guess there is a reason there are so many toys on wheels!

He does show me his cars etc and follow me with them when I leave the room so I guess he's interacting ok. If I offer him a different wheely toy, he'll also put the other one down to look at it.

I used to go to a baby/toddler group where all Ds1 wanted to do was to lock and unlock the door. (It was in a church so huge lock and key). All the other kids were stuck into the Play Doh. I just took my cup of tea over and sat with him.

He also had a phase of Fire Extinguishers.

It's called a schema. He has a rotating schema.

Ooh yes Sparkling, he does love a bunch of keys, and can slot the right one in to open the back door [proud]. That keeps him occupied for a good ten minutes, until he spies the rotating washing machine...

If I google 'schema' is it going to panic me?

My 10mo DS does this too! My older DD is very upset about her toy pushchair being flipped over ALL the time!

There must be a reason that cot mobiles go roundandround.

DS loved spinning things - still does , he used to flip his pushchair over so he could spin its wheels (couldn't quite understand why everyone didn't want to have their pushchair over )-a friend of his had to have all of his cars touching in rows, once in a playgroup they lined up all the pushchairs and flipped them! chaos....

both of which are fine its to do with how they learn i think - here is a very non scary link - it is completely normal- just will give some other ideas of things he likes...ds gets a new garden windmill every year!

www.dorsetforyou.com/357248

Nope QueenKong nothing to worry about. Schema's are a perfectly normal stage of development lots of kids go through. So for example, your DS probably has a rotating schema while another DC who really likes stacking probably has a vertical schema and a DC who loves putting stuff in boxes/containers probably has an enveloping schema.

At work (early years) I get all excited if I notice a little one has a schema!

I'd say to carry on encouraging his love of all things wheely.

We have a toy like this - ds favourite and if it's around (I'm a childminder so still have his little toys) he will still play with it...

www.mothercare.com/ELC-Spinning-Gears-and-Cogs/130920,default,pd.html?cm_sp=ProductFeatures--Category%2520landing--ELC%2520Spinning%2520Gears%2520and%2520Cogs&extid=gs

all my 3 boys are drawn to anything with wheels, as soon as they learn to crawl they always go straight to anything with wheels on! i have noticed a lot of boys are like that
i wouldnt worry about asd based purely and only on that especially if not doing it repetitively

My 16 month old dd, loves turning her toy prams upside down and playing with the wheels, she also does this with ride-alongs and a play hoover. Her sisters were the same - she can't stack a brick for toffee mind you

Thank you everyone, I feel very relieved.

My 2.6 yr old DS loves wheels and has done since he was about 6 months old. At 1 yr he used to love repeating the same task over and over (put all his toys on the shelf, put them all on the floor and back up on the shelf or spin any wheel he could find). He's grown out of the repetitive behaviour but still loves wheels. He loves studying how things work (in between digging stuff in the garden, trailing toilet roll all round the house, watching Fireman Sam and singing an dancing at every opportunity).

Sounds like he's just a normal little boy.

Update - he has just discovered the joys of unrolling the toilet roll.

at having a one year old. My one year old suddenly became 12 and is currently on a school trip in Germany.

Cherish all these moments, it doesn't last long.

QueenKong I hide toilet roll , my 16 month old loves wandering into a bedroom, picking up a soft toy/clothes and throwing it into a bath usually when one of her sisters is in the bath.