Special interests!

[HottestEverRecordedTemperature]

I just love hearing about what special interests ND children have. My son has gone through a range - purses, numbers, car registrations, visual logos, Disney films etc. I love how engaged he gets and what each interest means to him. I also really love how random they seem to be. Before he was verbal and still in a cot he would only sleep with the Argos catalogue for example!

I'd love to hear about your or your child's special interests if anyone wishes to share!

My 12 year old ASC boy is, and has been for some time, completely Pokémon obsessed. It is not the cards or the show anymore, but the Switch and 3ds games and collecting shinies. He also spends hours and hours designing his own pokemon regions, compete with hand-drawn maps, and works out the complex dynamics between the various pokemon types in his new regions etc. He then info dumps at me every night at bath time for about 30min to tell me the new pokemon he has invented, or the new things he has learnt. I now know more about Pokemon myself than I ever thought possible 😂

His other special interest is Agatha Christie. He is currently working through all her books, watching documentaries about her and reading about her work and life. He calls her “Aggie” and has decided that not only is Poirot autistic, but she was as well….

I guess his other one is Jellycat Bunnies. He has about 30 of them, sleeps with them all arranged in a particular and specific way in his bed each night, and seems to be on a mission to collect all of them…

I agree - I love the enthusiasm and love seeing how his brain works. The amount of information he seems able to absorb and retain amazes me

Love Jellycat! Mine (14) is also still very interested in soft toys and seems to collect them. He had a brief serve into Agatha Christie which I got very excited about as I am also keen but he seems to have cooled on that sadly. I think your DS might be right about Poirot.

I love the idea about Pokemon regions and hand drawn maps! Such creativity!

I really enjoy looking at the world in a different way through their eyes. It's been incredibly enriching.

My ds loved Henry hoovers when he was a toddler, we had to buy him a couple of real ones !! Also the toy ones etc.
Then it was the titanic
Then space
Then weather particularly hurricanes
But the main special interest that's always remained is his ipad and bloody Roblox !!

He is 9 and already making games and learning to script and code

@HottestEverRecordedTemperature thank you for starting this thread !

As the mother of a non verbal (I hope preverbal) 4 DS , I am intrigued to see all the different special interests listed already .

Can I ask how old your son was when he developed language ? And did being non verbal hinder him being able to develop hobbies or special interests?

I have noticed my son likes books,car wheels and running water .

He was completed obsessed with a few tv programmes but we have had to stop screen time completely as we have been told it reduces his opportunities to learn language and pick up social cues etc as he gets completely engrossed in what he is watching .

Hello!

@susansaucepan DS had no words at all at 2 and we were referred to SALT. They determined that his hearing was not an issue and discharged us. He had barely any words at 3. he mainly screeched. I don't think he had full sentences at 4. He was very delayed in every area including speech. I am very hazy on timelines but it was about aged 4 that he started to pick up but was noticeably delayed until at least year 5-6. So- 9-10 years. He is now 14 and this evening we were out for dinner and he was nonstop to the point that I had to tell him, his brother and his father that they had to take it in turns for 'their bit of talking'.
Being non verbal never hindered his interests.

DS is very screen oriented which has worried me in the past- but he has always used screens to regulate himself and to initiate downtime. So I am very relaxed on screen time. He can hold an extended conversation with anyone now but he needs to decompress using a safe space which for him is screens. So i am not very fussed about it at present and going with it. But there have been times in the past where the reliance was quite intrusive and I have had to have mini breaks... but very tiny and building up. He finds daily life so challenging that I have to work around that sometimes.

Mine also had a Titanic obsession. And roblox. Does yours do the roblox Titanic games? if not then you did not hear of its existence from me. There is a Poseidon Adventure roblox as well.

Pokemon for DD2. Lots and lots and lots of Pokemon.

To be fair it comes in very very useful for me as I work with a lot of autistic adults (I'm also autistic myself) and being able to know your Wigglypuff from your Wobuffet is a very useful skill!

For me it was Hamilton the musical and historical background to it for a very long time. I tend to get stuck on a rabbit hole where I need to acquire ALL the informations about something and then move onto the next one - so crafting obsessions are a regular one for me.

I come across some brilliant ones in conversation with clients - won't breech confidentiality with them but there is seriously NOTHING like the joy of a good autistic info-dump session in full flow!

DD..late teen loves history of textiles...patterns and colours!