Do NT children routinely give names to their toy animals/cuddly toys?

[TotalChaos]

Stupid question, but it's driving me crazy, that whenever well meaning people (even family who are aware of his speech issues) see DS with one of his animals, they ask him what it's name is! (driving me crazy as DS then struggles to give an appropriate answer) Is this some important language or social skill stage that I should be working on with him?

My DD's do, but DD2 names them with the same name.

My kids didn't do this always - many times teddy was teddy, gorilla was gorilla

and i recognise the people asking them thing - DS2 would stare at them as if they were mad

It's hard to say. My NT 18 month old gets excited calling Makka Pakka by his name 'Makka Akka' and calling his duck 'Duckie' but I have no idea how common this is.

cyber - I mean something slightly different, that people seem to except DS's toy zebra to be called Cyril or Martha or something like that.

My dd has never named any of her toys, TC. I initially thought it was because she was too young to get her head around the concept of a bear being called Martha, but she's seven now and still doesn't name her toys. If you gave her a stuffed zebra, it would be called Zebra. She has a few dolls, and they don't have names either.

Hmmm... the only toy DD (probably not NT) has a name for (other than tv related ones) is "Sweetie" the teddy, but I think that may have had a name tag when we got her.

DS can't say his own name, so too young to tell.

She does look completely blankly at people who ask the names though.

Same here TC. DS2 only calls them 'bear' or 'cat' etc. But DS1 (NT) has only given his toys names at the age of about 5.

Thanks all, very interesting, sounds like it's a common but not very sensible question to kids in that case.

dd1 has about 4 things that have names
her fav bear/comforter - Mr Bear
her ragdoll - Sally
her toy baby - Annabel
her cuddly rabbit - Dexter (after her nanny's rabbit who went to bunny heaven and dd1 very upset so MIL bought it for her)

dd2 - nope but shes only just learning to talk

dd used to call her dolls all the same name
ds when small name his teddy..... red ted.
he then had lully and tedda(oh the joy of saying this about a now 16 year old)

but no one has ever asked dd what she calls something.

DD (2.4) has a bear ('Bear'); a rabbit ('Rabbit'); another rabbit ('Bunny'); a zebra ('Zeddy'- well he came from mamas and papas called this!); a doll ('Doll') and an easter 'make it yourself' chick called 'Mince Pie Chick' which she came up with herself, and she was definitely missing her favourite christmas snack by the time we got to Easter!

When I was small I had 'Pink Bear' and 'Blue Rabbit'.... can you guess what they were?

My two sometimes did, sometimes didn't but as others have said - the names weren't/aren't startlingly original. So if your DS were able to name the animal, that would cover it, it seems to me. None of the Tabitha or Djago nonsense...

Mine have named some of their special cuddlys.

my 2 don't

DS1's teddy is picnic, his dog is doggy
DD has named her cat Purr
DS2 has named his cat ginger and his kitten is jake but DD sometimes uses human names too.

no.

dd1 has never given any soft toy a name. actually tell a lie, bear has been known as twinkle, and is now known as scruff. but generally known as 'the bear daddy bought me when i was a baby'.

dd2 does give names to her toys, but they all tend to have the same name as once. so she'll have 5 toy dogs named Shayla one month, then the next month they are all called spot.

dd3 doesnt name anything.

I think in some ways it is a learnt behaviour

DD (NT) has a brown bear which she got with a book and everytime we read the book we referred to Brown bear

She also had a twinkle bear which sang twinkle

All other dolls/animals etc have been 'monkey' 'bear' 'doll/baby'

As she got older 4-6 she introduced size/clour as a classification 'blue teddy' 'large baby' etc

A friend refers to all stuffed toys with an individual name - horance, george, amelia etc & the child uses these names because her parents do

I think naming toys was something my two learned from me, and I learned from my mum - 'what are you going to call your new teddy?'
DS's comfort toy was always just 'clown' and his favourite teddy (who I pretend not to notice goes to & from university with him) was called Clinton because he came from Clinton's card shop & had a label with that on.

I think this is interesting, and that there is a element of different-ness.

Dd (7, nothing could be more NT) names everything, very publicly - "this is [thinks on spot] ... Serena. I've decided to call her Serena, because ..." (and then she goes on to give endless reasons; but the point isn't the name, or the reasons; the point is the naming thing is a perfect pretext to engage & bond with somebody/anybody on the subject of lovely toy cats).

Ds (who doesn't have a specific diagnosis but has lots of issues in the typical ASD/HFA triad area - I wish there was a shorthand for that description) would not ever have understood the concept of "name of toy as pretext for conversation" as a social exchange. He does name his toys, but in order to fit them into some surreal private fantasy he's deep in - so not to "share" their name, almost the very opposite.

dd2 is the one who has 'traits' and will name her toys and use it as a basis for a conversation wittering on for many hours in great detail about the whys and wherrefores of that name. ok they all have the samer name, but it gives her a reason to chat simlessly to people for hours.

mind you she toild dh at 2am the other week on the correct way to wipe bottoms

2shoes - ds was the same. At the height of his Thomas obsession everything was called Gordon (his favourite engine). And during the Thunderbirds phase everything had to be Virgil. Including himself, at one point.

I agree with Bink - what I was getting at was the obvious social delight that DS2 (NT) has in sharing a name, any name with another person. It seems to be very important to him.