Numbers obsessed.

[sheapards]

Hi all,

hopefully I have categorised this correctly, I have a little boy who is nearly 2 - and he is obsessed with numbers ( I’m not complaining it’s amazing he is so fascinated by them ) however it can be a lot from fiddling with the cooker timer, counting each fence panel on a road walking, continuous counting & melt downs if numbers aren’t in the right order in a strait line, same goes for numbered duckies in the bath. Has anyone else experienced the same?

nursery twice a week and they are amazed he can count to 10 and has been able to since he was 16 months, they don’t have any concerns. Am I being a paranoid mum?

Hiya,

My son, also 2 loves numbers. He likes identifying them when we are out and about and in books. I can often diffuse some situations by turning it into a numbers related thing instead. But he doesn't do anything per what you have mentioned above. He has similar interest in alphabet, shapes and colours too.

Possibly an autistic trait but a fascinating one. Ask nursery about his social skills and monitor these as friendships become more complicated as your son grows.

that’s great to hear and brilliant he’s engaging with those learning interests, especially so young. It’s the screaming if they aren’t in order and strait that’s worrying me :( x

I agree, parents evening vastly approaches even at this stage so I think it’s the right time for me to flag up any concerns. He won’t watch or interact with anything at home unless it involves counting and colours.

My dd was like this. She's almost 5 now and almost certainly on the autistic spectrum. It's not something you should feel upset about if this applies to your son but just realise that the NT world can be stressful for those of us who are autistic.

My dd was talking from 8 months and she's still bright now - she could count to 50 before the age of 2 and she finds reading very easy. She's quirky and likes to talk about the planets in the solar system and which order they are in. And was upset by a bookmark that included Pluto. Lol.

You've not really said what you are worrying about....but my ds was just like this and he is autistic. His nursery kept telling me how wonderful his knowledge of shapes, alphabet, colours and numbers was he could count to 100 at 2 it was mad... we moved him and his next nursery referred him immediately which has been a help because we needed support and we got ahead of it for school.Its hard from one post but I genuinely thought I was the only person worried about my ds and that must mean I was wrong... I wasn't. He had no meltdowns at that age though... was very happy in his numbers world!

How are joint attention, speech and language, play skills?

Thanks for your response this resonates heavily with me as my son actually said 100 the other day and is 2 in Feb! But can comfortably count to 50. Much agreed it’s a stressful world to navigate and I don’t want to see him upset over this. Bless her x

Thanks for your response, I would say my main concern/worry is actually with making friends, in a 1-1 setting with even a familiar child, my little boy doesn’t like being “played with” he would much rather just continue counting and sorting with me & will even shove or cry if another child wanting to help (even if I approach this in a positive way for him). Just very triggering for him in certain aspects, I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill & nursery don’t seem to have any concerns but I certainly will be raising questions about this. He plays very well with his key worker but I’ve had no feedback regarding the inclusion of another child.

My son was like this with letters. Obsessed with finding them, asking about them, telling me them (name of them and the phonetic sound).

for him, it didn’t really mean anything. He knew all his letters before 3 but couldn’t blend them together until about 6 so was no more ahead in reading. He also isn’t ND. It’s something to keep an eye on for sure but I wouldn’t worry too much at 2.

My son was like this at his age and for a few years after. I couldn't sit and read with him for ages as all he wanted to do was look at the page numbers he used to watch videos upon videos of counting on YouTube, it was literally just numbers counting up or down on the screen. He also had a thing about letters as well.
It's funny because he's 11 now and has no interest whatsoever in numbers anymore! He was diagnosed with autism at 5. He was that obsessed with numbers that my youngest son was counting before he was 2 lol

My DS was exactly the same at that age OP and I have to say he got a lot worse with the melt downs before he got better. Total obsession with numbers and orders/patterns/lining things up etc and frustrations when he had to do other things. But he did fine when he started school, made friends, had no problems in that regard and as he got older he could control his emotions better. He excelled in school, had friends, managed socially etc, (The melt downs were saved for home lol). He is now a totally normal teenager, although no doubt on the autistic spectrum, away studying for his maths degree at a really good uni.

Your little boy is still very young and they do get very frustrated at that age when they are so intelligent. Give it time, encourage the social side of things but still let him do the number things that he enjoys.

@sheapards My younger ds who I think is NT was always really social but a lot of other kids didn't really want to engage with him at that age, I think solo play is quite normal, I'm not sure about that level of distress. Experience with neurodiversity can vary quite a bit but I would keep discussing your concerns with nursery. My other suggestion would be the MChat checklist which you can find online and raising with your health visitor at the soonest opportunity, some areas have a 2 year check ours is more like 2.5. Our area also has a SEN playgroup now so see if there is anything like that for you (not when I needed it unfortunately!) There are experienced early years support workers there and they might be able to give you advice about your specific concerns and discuss other things to look for, great for reassurance!

Lots of development time to go. I miss the numbers phase... I'm dealing with a Halloween obsession at the moment!