Year 2 ds's fixation on things

[threeslices]

My year 2 ds has always had amazing concentration and been very interested in things for periods of time (eg. lego, club penguin, etc.). I am finding now the older he gets the more completely obsessed he gets about things to the point of it being pretty much all he thinks about and wants to do. I was wondering if this is normal boy behaviour, as none of his friends seems to be so extreme about things they like. Also, how can i help him to stop being so fixated on one thing so he will happily do other stuff without a sulk?

Could be normal.

Could be a symptom of Aspergers.

If he's ok at interacting with other people when the situation requires it, then I wouldn't worry too much if he has a more focussed approach to his interests than average. Some people are just a lot more focussed on one thing, its not necessarily a sign of any problems.

When you talk about "doing other stuff" do you mean things that have to be done (homework, clearing the table) or do you mean for fun? I wouldn't bother trying to make him spend his time on other things, if he's focussed on one hobby. But of course he has to alllocate time to the chores, schoolwork, etc, without sulking.

Hello there, thanks for the replies. His social interaction has always been a weak point despite our best efforts. It comes so easily to my younger dd, but ds does struggle with this, especially with people he doesn't know well. With the family though, can be extremely loving and he does have good friends in and out of school. I do sometimes think he rants on at them about his current interest regardless of the fact it goes over their heads most of the time.

I do try to get him to do other things in his time because i think he should be i suppose, but maybe i should just let him get on with it. He is quite complient with his homework and chores i think because he knows he has to do them so he just gets on with them without much fuss.

My ds (5) is just like this.

His obsession is a particular film, and has been for about 18 months. Before then it was something else, and before that....

It's tricky, he gets real, genuine enjoyment from talking about it- which he does constantly- but it's so hard to share the enthusiasm in fact I snapped at him this morning when he wanted to talk to me about a picture he'd drawn, a variation on the exact same picture (a scene from the film)he's filled 4 drawing pads with in the last fortnight. I said, I have seen enough of that picture...I'm not interested and will happily look at your pictures when you start drawing other things! Not handled well, but have tried encouraging other things, explaining nicely why not everyone is interested in the same thing etc etc and it gets us nowhere.

He is a very sociable little thing, has lots of friends and is generally chatty and sweet but I can't help but think that unless he snaps out of this obsessiveness he'll start to lose friends. He really only wants to talk about his interest a good 90% of the time. It's like he really can't stop himself and he works it into EVERY conversation somehow.

I really don't know what to suggest, but you have my sympathies and I will watch this thread with interest.

Btw, has anyone ever discussed the possibility of SN with you? The school have wanted me to get ds referred for assessment via GP but then GP talked me out of it and felt there was no cause. So I'm a bit in limbo with that ATM.

JV - if you are still concerned I'd go back to your GP and ask him/her to refer you to a child dev paed. Insist he does.

GPs aren't experts on developmental disorders, that's why they're GPs and not paeds :)

School are more likely to be able to recognise SN, then your GP who hardly knows your DS........

My ds does that too. Spends hours drawing characters from his latest obsession. He also gets frustrated if he cannot get it just right.

School have never mentioned SN but have always said his social interaction is his weak point and they are trying to work on this. He is definaterly getting more chatty, but slightly immaturely in my opinion compared to his academic abilities.