Hi just looking some advice. Since my 4 yr son got numberblocks for Christmas he has been become increasingly obsessed with them. He enjoyed numbers before this and is really good at simple maths - he can count and can add simple numbers together etc. However, he has started making numbers out of the blocks - ie 17 and talks to them like they are real and even wants to take them to bed!! Probably because on the cbeebie show the numbers all have their own personality I think. He has stopped playing with a lot of his other toys and only wants to make numbers (and they can be out of anything if he doesn't have blocks). Should I try to broaden his interests by limiting the numbers or should I just let him play away if he is happy. I just see his interests getting increasingly narrower. I'm not sure what the right thing to do is? Sometimes it drives me crazy - as at times the first thing he says when he wakes up is "two tens are 20!" or "5 and 2 is 7" Maybe it is just a phase that will fade away. Everyone else thinks it's great and all I hear is "he is going to be an accountant"...but I just worry about whether I should encourage or slowly try to limit. Has anyone else had a similar child? Many thanks,
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SalmonWellington · 15/03/2024 15:22
Everything @BestZebbie said - plus get him some cuisinaire rods and take look at NRIch and Orchard games. It's not maths or social skills - it can be social skills through maths.
Scratchybaby · 20/03/2024 11:47
My son, who is 5 and does have an ASD diagnosis, is obsessed with Alphablocks and does the same thing! First thing I hear in the morning is him saying "s is in the word nest" or something similar. It's like the letters themselves and the mechanics of phonics - not even the Alphablocks characters necessarily - are what he has affection for and he gets a real buzz out of playing with the alphabet in any form to make short words and phonics sounds.
I don't know how all this plays out in the long term as we're at roughly the same age/stage, but I'm another one for leaning in to the special interests. Our DS has already had phases with jigsaws and Gruffalo and he got useful and surprising skills out of both those obsessions and they did eventually get replaced by something new. We also found special interests to be a really effective vehicle for developing other skills (speech, turn taking, etc). Whether or not your DS is autistic, it sounds like he's loving learning an important academic subject that has unlimited applications in work and life, and passion for learning on that scale is what produces the future geniuses in science and art, to say nothing of the benefits to his wellbeing he gets from doing what makes him happiest. Good for him!!! 😍
Scratchybaby · 20/03/2024 16:29
You too @brenda26 I read your post and just saw my own son in everything you wrote about yours. I already have a soft spot for your little guy!!
Our DS wasn't interested in writing letters or forming words until he started school, but he had a great foundation because of the Alphablocks obsession and really took off once they started with phonics. I'm sure yours will find the same with maths ❤
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