Autism or adhd- can’t play? Help!

[hettie74]

Hi folks I have a 6 year old son who is under assessment for autism, Aspergers and adhd. He won’t play with anything other than dinosaur figures and is very aggressive at times like bedtime and going out. I am struggling to play with him at the moment and try to encourage anything other than the dinosaurs but he won’t have it. I don’t want to stop this passion but struggling when that’s all there is day in day out. I hear myself writing this and hate how I sound,but it’s just all consuming and I find it difficult to get him to try anything else- board games, Lego, crafts , he just has no interest. No formal diagnosis yet but struggling here.

Have you tried dinosaur related 'other things' dinosaur board games, dinosaur tv, dinosaur crafts and so on?

Sorry @hettie74 I haven’t got any real experience so p,ease don’t take this the wrong way but is he happy to just play with his dinos? Do he need to play with other things? If he does, do you think he’d be persuaded to help make these cupcakes?

Do you think it might help posting in the SN Board? From what I understand there are some very supportive and experienced MNers there

I know your son isn’t diagnosed but if he is actually autistic, it is very very common for asd children to become obsessed with something and struggle to do anything g else.

My son is autistic and has numerous obsessions have been extreme over the last few years.

Try other things to do with dinosaurs. Other dinosaur toys, baking dinosaur cakes (?), dinosaur crafts, dinosaur games, dinosaur tv, dinosaur books etc etc.

Good advice above. A friend's son is like this (also suspected asd) and his passions are all consuming til - one day- dropped and on to the next one. She's learnt not to buy Xmas and birthday presents too far in advance. He likes to 1. Play with toys representing his current interest 2. Read books about his current interest 3. Watch programmes about his current interest 4. Draw pictures of his current interest. And that's about it tbh.