Any one elses dc obsessed with hoovers..??

[mumu80]

I just posted earlier that my ds will be getting assessed for autism.
His thing is hoovers,if i let him he would play with mines for hours at a time, he has 6 of his own and its the only real thing he is interested in.
If he is not playing with a hoover he is looking in catalouges at pictures of hoovers (bless him) or getting me to look up hoovers on the internet for him.
When we go visiting family the 1st thing he dose is gets there hoover out.
Has anyone else come across this...??
At the moment we just let him play with them but im unsure if its stopping him from learning new things.
Forget family trips to the zoo his ideal day out would be a trip down the local electrical store,ha.
Are they really that interesting...am i missing somethimg here...??

:) a friend of mine's son had the whole Hoover thing going on for a good couple of years.

Hoovers are very cool things we came to learn, firstly they ate a machine.. With wheels, they have different powers, different nozzles some have bags some you can see the grot.. And there are lots and lots of different. Types to add to the mental, or photographic collection!

Hoovers aren't so bad really and I really wouldn't worry about it. friends son did move on to cars next.

It's not so mad really when there are grown men who are not on the spectrum who know and collect and lives depend upon a game with a leather ball!

And at least he's not pysically collecting all the batteries in the house! < bitter>

They are*

How old is he? My ds had obsessions with hoovers first and then washing machines when he was small. He was truly fascinated by them and spent hours poring over pictures of them in the Argos catalogue.

He is now nearly 9 and has long since moved on to computers and his Nintendo dsi.

As Aresnic said, they do tend to move onto a new area of interest eventually.

I don't think its stopping him learning and he probably finds it comforting. Especially if he finds there is a hoover in every house he visits.

Could be worse - could be Thomas the Tank Engine - my (nt) ds2 nearly fried my brains with his Thomas obsession!

My ds loves the dyson hoover with but the big one for him is wheelie bins. Bought him toy ones with a bin lorry for christmas two years ago (he is 5 now)and loves them but would stand outside arranging the real thing for hours if I let him. Will also ask all my friends where they keep theirs whenever we go to anyones house!!

ds2 had a hoover obsession that followed a fear of our hoover. He went from not being able to go near the cupboard with the hoover in it to sitting with the argos catalogue smiling at them for hours.
He is 8 now and pretty much over the hoover obsession although i do catch him taking a sneeky peak every so often

Thanks for you replies guys.
He is 2.5, initially he was scared of them when he was a baby, but he soon became fixated with them.
I see what you mean it must be comforting to have a hoover in every houses when we go visiting, id never thought of it like that before.
If we are out anywhere he spots one from a mile of.
He is sitting at my feet at the moment taking my one to pieces i cant get moving in this house for hoovers today.....dont even get me started on the noise of them haha..!!

Larissa that has made me .

DS2 loves our hoover, he lies next to it while I hoover, it's not an upright so he can lie and crawl while I drag it.

Like others have said, children with ASD do often move from one thing to the next. DS2 was mad keen on the Disney cartoon Wall-E at one point and he would go on and on about it for hours and watch the dvd every day. We did use this to our advantage and used Wall-E as a role model for things. Doesn't work as much now he is into Lilo and Stitch

I'm frightened of hoovers, which isn't handy for a mum on the autism spectrum, but I've reached a nervous agreement with mine

We have to know everything about categories of things. Hoovers, washing machines, trees, plants, animals, etc etc - we have to know every angle of them and every type of them. Then once we know it all, we move on to the next thing.

Use hoovers to teach him other stuff. Drawing hoovers, counting hoovers, different colours of hoover, etc. If we can relate lessons back to our Favourite Thing in the Whole World it's so much easier to persuade us.

Both of mine have had their dyson love phases - DS1 even got one for his 1st birthday (a toy one - which he wrecked pretty quickly, of course!)

It's really hard to vacuum with DS2 around, these days, since he's constantly jumping in front to watch the dirt go round. He's also quite upset if we take it apart to clean it. We had to empty it in secret for a while and woe betide us if we pulled the hose out to use it!

DS1 has gone the other way, mind, and now hates the noise it makes. I bought some ear defenders for him, the other week, because that's got so bad.

DS1's biggest obsession was out washer, mind. He would hum along with it all through the cycle and carefully keep track of the timer. He was devastated when we replaced it, last year and fell totally out of love when we had to replace the replacement, this year.

Hoovers - oh yes. Been seen and done this one. Particular fascination with Henry Hoovers. The best thing is though - he now does the hoovering beautifully. He's brilliant at doing out the car and is a dab hand at doing the house - so it does have an upside.

The washing machine thing was big as well which used to really upset me seeing him sat infront of a washing machine. I wouldn't let him after a bit. Again, he doesn't take any notice of it for several years now and at least knows how to work it and do the washing which is more than his father does .

Yep, another one here! It has long since passed now but for a while hoovers were definitely DS1's thing. Spent many an afternoon passing the time in Currys!