Strange drawings in 4yo boy

[fortheloveofgodstopwhingeing]

My 4yo loves drawing and writing, he is forever making signs and drawing trains, making maps etc. I know it sounds a bit daft, but I am getting a bit unnerved about the way he draws. He will draw a train or a building and then literally fill it with lots and lots of windows - little even squares. He drew an "8-deck train" this morning that was so full of these tiny squares, it took him ages. He then did about 10 little chimneys on the top and did identical curls of smoke coming from each one. He also drew a huge very detailed map of a city we recently visited, from memory, including things like post boxes, and palm trees on the seafront, and tartan-backed chairs at a cafe where we stopped for coffee.

Am I being silly? It's just that there is something very obsessional about the way he does this, and the drawings are getting more formulaic and complex. I can't put my finger on why it bothers me.

sounds like he's good at drawing. Is there anything else about his behaviour that bothers you?

Wow, that sounds really interesting.

Does it remind you of that kid who was AS and did drawings of cities? Stephen something?

flightattendant I was just typing that question myself!

he also loses his temper and gets VERY upset if he gets something wrong, he demands new paper if he has spelt a word wrong (obviously he spells lots of words wrong without knowing he's spelt them wrong, but when he does it wrong and knows he has, he flares up).

He is good at drawing, in the way I've described, but it's in a very stylised and 2D way - he doesn't do perspective or shading of any of the other things a child gifted in art might do. It's just these very formulaic, obsessional pictures of trains/buildings with masses of tiny windows, treasure maps with tons of detail, maps of cities or train routes. It's like they are an exercise in remembering minute facts, rather than drawing for its own sake.

I'm not explaining this very well, am I?

Sounds like a sensitive and clever child, don't feel worried just because his drawing skills and attention levels surpass those of his peers, he may just turn out to be a gifted little chap.

Is he very focussed when doing anything else or is it just during drawing/writing?

I think the autistic savant children who do amazing pictures of cathedrals etc tend to be realy gifted early on at perspective and shading and all that technical stuff (I'm not great at drawing myself). DS1's pictures aren't like that IMO.

Thing is if your ds did have anything like "AS" going on there would be other signs than this iykwim so no worries if he is fine with everything else

He sounds very sensitive. When he was learning to draw, did he draw in the same way as his peers, I mean lots of scribbles, abstract stuff that he would declare to be a 'tree' or whatever, but really was just a scribble?

fwiw my dd who is 8 and has AS is brilliant at drawing but they are not strange. They are extremely detailed though and she will include things like a lady falling over with her shopping all over the floor and the faces are very expressional HTH

I should confess that I DO have other concerns about him (although by no means anything definite) and have posted about them before. I changed my name for this because I wanted answers which weren't influenced by all the background stuff, IYSWIM?

I love his pictures, and I find him (and all children!!) very interesting, but these are starting to unnerve me a bit. DH showed me a picture yesterday which had made him do a double take, it was an apartment building with loads and loads of windows, it must have taken ages to do. But the big (A2-ish) city map was even weirder, although wonderful as well. Do other children go through phases of doing odd drawings?

oh yes, and he spent a good proportion of yesterday making "mazes", you know the ones in activity books where you have to find a way from the start to the end? These were really complex and had things like arrows encouraging you to go up blind alleys. He was choking with laughter making dh "do" them afterwards. But he made about ten of them!! He is incredibly focused when he is doing things like this, you could smash a window behind him and he wouldn't notice.

Can you take a photo of one of the pics and post it on here? It sounds very interesting. I don;t know if I'd be worried/unnerved - kids do get into weirdo behavioural ruts, don't they?

Can you describe why you feel unnerved? What's your biggest worry about it?

I could take a pic and post it I think, I'll ask dh to help me.

Maybe unnerved is the wrong word, there's just something about them that seems very obsessive. It's not just the pictures themselves, it's the way he draws them.

I am glad he enjoys drawing, I wouldn't want to discourage it or anything, quite the reverse. It's difficult to explain why it bothers me.

Your DS sounds really intelligent and painstaking. It's obviously something he enjoys, the drawings sound like inventions that he imagines. He obviously learns by observation; does he draw the same way if you ask him to draw something, or are they only subjects of his own choosing?
I'd continue to enjoy his drawings as they are, he may well suddenly start a phase of drawing other things. I'd only worry if the pictures were sinister or violent in nature, e.g. people killing each other.

I wouldn't worry per se, My dd is 5 and her drawings are stick people and very basic, if it's something he enjoys then let him get on with it. I do however, sorry if this isn't what you want to hear, think that he may be within the autistic spectrum (please note, I don't have any qualifications to back this up, it's just a hunch) it's not necessarily anything that will hinder him in any way, more that is brain is so focused in one area. A lot of recognised geniuses are thought to have been autistic such as Einstein and Mozart! So not all gloomy! Mention it to your HV if you're worried. I'd love to see a pic by the way, sounds fascinating!