Lining Up Toys

[PatrickMJ]

Our 34 month old has recently started lining-up his toys, they don't seem to be in any particular order, other than the cars are grouped together and the figures are grouped together. If you take one of the toys out of the line and start to play with it, he gets upset. He lines up fruit also, but when he does he sings along a song about counting apples!

To put this in conext, he's been off nursery with chickenpox and the cold, so his routine is out of sync, plus he's been in the house more.

I know that lining-up can be an autism red-flag, but I have also read that nearly all children do this at some point and it is part of the 'positioning schema' which is part of their development. He's never really done it before and I had wondered about the autism thing as he gets upset if you pull something out of line. The line tends to differ each time though.

Otherwise, he sleeps well, eats well, seems OK with changes to routine and the nursery haven't flagged anything up. Eye contact is good, he's asking "what's that" a lot and he points. He points more now than he used to!

Any thoughts?

Sounds like he's just playing with them. My LO does that a lot at nearly 2 years.

That sounds completely normal to me! My toddler did the same thing starting around the same age. Putting order to things/toys is normal, even if most of the time total disorder seems to be the more common occurrence!

I think the eye contact and asking questions is a far stronger indication of autism (or not, in this case). However I'm not a doctor, so if you have doubts it would be best to speak with one. In your case though I really wouldn't be concerned!

My 3 yo sometimes does this but he lines them up on the radiator and shouts "hot wheels". I know a lot of men in my family who played like this, lining up their toys (cars) and today are nt adults. I think if he has a few more red flags concerning his social and communication side of his development then it might be an idea to maybe speak to professionals. I used to read a lot of things about this on doctor Google especially when toddlers would spin wheels however, the context was never explained until I asked a paediatrician about this and he simply asked me if I noticed that most age appropriate toys will have a rotating element and it's part of the exploring (schema play).

It all has to be taken into context. If you have no other concerns I wouldn't worry. Eg my dd went through a phase of lining her cars and soft toys up but imaginitive play and socialising has always been great in addition to this. Point in hand I knew it wasn't a red flag when she would line toys up but then proceed to give each of her toys in turn a 'gymnastics lesson' and make them straddle and cartwheel 😄