lining of objects

[dannilynn]

hi is anyone out there? just curious for helpful hints i have a three year old daughter name noelle who is obsessed with lining everything up she lets me help,and i can remove things and change them around,but i can't seem to get her to do anything else with these toys or food whatever shes playing with any ideas?

[deedles]

Hi Dannilynn,
When does your daughter do this the most? Is it all the time or perhaps when she is stressed or overwhelmed. Have you tried switching the lining up to functional play? For instance, if she is lining up cars, find a plank or something that you can use as a big ramp to run the cars down. You can add language by playing, "Ready, set...........go!" When she understands the game, hold out on the "go" and see if she anticipates it or maybe even tries to say it. Hope this helps, it's difficult to comment not knowing more about your daughter. Good Luck!:)

[Mom2Nate]

Hi dannilynn,
My son, Nate seems to have an obsession with symmetry and lining things up, particularly things that are similiar. He lines up all his Tellitubbies by size and all of his little animal figures as well, except he groups all the elephants together and lions together and so on. I have found that there is nothing......absolutely
NADA I can do to help him do anything else with it. He will put a toy in my hand and guide me to place it where he wants it to be. He seems to find a comfort zone in his activity of lining things up.
I still just sit back and observe what it is he seems to be fixed with about lining his things up. If he welcomes me in his activity, I jump in, if he doesn't, I say out. Have fun with it.
MOM2NATE
:)

[Yolime]

My son use to line up all his toys and even his food. Such as peas etc. He is now 16 and still does this. Not as often but still does. I was told that they do this because its the only thing in there world that they can feel in control of there lives. To keep things in order in a world that makes no sense to them. {the normal world}.

Yolime

[Lighthouses]

Hello Yomile, I still like to oranize myself. Thanks, :rolleyes:

[dannilynn]

thanks to everyone who replied about my noelle,and lining of objects. Its kinds said when you put it like its the only thing in their world their in control of. I usually let her do her own thing sometimes i interact with that play,but for the most part i just watch almost like i'am going to find a meaning behind it.She has some limited speech mostly repeating some with meaning.I think i have just diagnosed myself with ocd i have to have my house clean my yard in order,and recently don't visit people for long because i want to start cleaning their house. I have always been clean,but its getting obsessively bad. I guess maybe thats noelles thing with order. Hopefully i can direct it other ways she does it all the time not just when shes upset. Now if shes in the middle of lining ,and we have to go somewhere i have to wait until shes done or she gets mad. thanks again for your input!!!!!!!!!!:)

[Lighthouses]

Hello Dannylin, Well, I also have limited speech/ sign langage skills due to AS. I often yell at someone else. Thanks, :)

[Kathy_Harris]

Hi,

I would suggest intensive intervention - by filling the child's day with activities and learning (that must be fun but also teaches at the same time) you will find stimming behaviors decrease because good skills increase.

Essentially, get your master's degree in autism complete with a chosen methodology.

[Lighthouses]

Hello Kathy, I don't have child but Thank You Very Much..Thanks, :eek:

[Klovan]

My daughter used to do it too. It is very autistic. I followed Option Institute technique (son-rise program): I started to line up different subjects. She was lining up CD's and me -- hard-coder books. I did it a little bit apart from her but where she could see me. That raised her interest in what I was doing and she began to cooperate even attempted to push me away from my line of books. That's how we switched eventually to stocking blocks, puzzles and computer games.

[Lighthouses]

Hello Kloven, Wow!..That's so cool!..Thanks, :rolleyes:

[AutismAwakening]

I have a idea that may also help. Try utilizing a good sensory diet to see if this may help. here is a link to one:
http://autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/autismawakening4therapy2/id4.html. Let me know if this helps.

Peacefully,
L.D.

[AutismAwakening]

Sorry I tried the other link and it did not work go to www.AutismAwakening.com go to the site map. Next click on the therapy site then go to the sensory diet.
Peacefully,
L.D.

[deedles]

Hi,
I looked for the sensory diet at Autism Awakening but couldn't find it. Would you mind sending the direct link?
The site looks great.

[AutismAwakening]

http://autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/autismawakening4therapy2/id4.html (http:/autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/autismawakening4therapy2/id4.html)
try this link to the sensory diet other wise please e-mail me personally at AutismAwakenign@aol.com and I will give you a direct link or a downloadable copy of that thesis.
Peacefully,
L.D.

[AutismAwakening]

I would be happy to e-mail this, however I will need e-mail addresses from those interested e-mailed to me personially, for some reason it will not allow me to do it from this site.
Sorry for any inconvience. Thanks for the compliment, we are very proud of it. We have watched it grow from 1 to 411 people to today we have seen almost 121,000 new people this month alone. This site was a part of the 2001 Autism Awakening Awareness Campain.
We are touring Iowa for Autism, 2 weeks are done and has been a lot of fun 1 1/2 weeks to go for Part one of a three part tour Tomorrow I will be unavailable until after 4:00 pm it will be an early day.

I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Peacefully,
L.D.

[B. Watkins]

Dannielle, when our son did this, we instituted a play program to teach appropriate toy play...it takes a long time, but it did wonders. Now, during down time, he says " I think I'll go get a toy." And he does, and he plays with it appropriately. Remember that toy play is not intinsicly reinforcing for a good number of autistic individuals. So, we paired the toy play with reinforcers. We started with a simple age appropriate toy...maybe a car. All he was required to do was push the car " Do this...." and he got reinforced. We gradually increased the requirements to crashing, driving, racing, whatever and decreased the reinforcement. We expanded to other toys and increased the time increment for good playing from 10 seconds working up to 2-5 minutes, depending on the toy. It does take awhile, but once our little guy knew what to do with the toys and had fun ( you have to be silly and engaging...and later you can back off so he can learn to play independently) he stopped lining things up and spinning them.

There are lots of options out there, but this worked well for our son. Bernadette

[Kathy_Harris]

Bernadette,

I think the teaching procedure you used was of Natural Environment Teaching. Skinner wrote about it in his 1957 book "Verbal Behavior". Sundberg and Partington rewrote the book into a more "parent friendly" format.

There is a big huge theory behind what you did and it is important to know that. Until people are talking on the same sheet of paper using the same vocabulary, you won't get nearly as far and will end up reinventing only parts of the wheel. Of course, that is just my opinion. :)

[B. Watkins]

Kathy, you're right in that there are many folks out there with good techniques, many of them very related...and it would be nice if they'd all start talking the same language. We are actually 3 years into an ABA program. Our consultant trained with Dr. Lovaas, but I've heard that Sunberg and Lovaas have a lot in common in their theory of practice, haven't really investigated it. Bernadette

[ets]

Hi,
My 6 yr old Ryan loves to line up everything also. I'm not entirely sure what his methodology is because there doesn't seem to be any real pattern to it. No color or size pattern. God forbid if anyone touches his set up though. He doesn't like that at all. Sometimes, I like to watch him b/c I guess it might help me see things his way for a short while. :o) I like to think he has a different perspective on things. Truth be told, I'm not sure if my interference with this pleasure will really help him. I'm open to any other opinions on this.
Thanks.:)

[Tashia]

My son also used to do this. Now he is 13 and I don't recall him doing it for quite some time now.

Whatever your child does, let them do it, join in, provide a way for it to be a learning experience and let them learn their own way. When Chris lined things up, I bought him ABC blocks and had him line them up and said the ABC's as we went. We made ABC trains, a CHRIS train, and used them to spell other words. We lined all the YELLOW ones up, then the GREEN ones, then the RED ones and learned colors. If it's there, use it!

If she has echolalic speech, thank your lucky stars that she speaks and USE IT! If it sounds like a word, repeat the word that it sounds like and reinforce it with the actual object or action. We used Chris' echolalia as a building block for useful speech and he actually turned some of the gibberish into words, then phrases, then sentences and now asks questions and carries on conversations. If it's there, use it!

Try buying magnetic letters for the refridgerator door. Put them at her level and let her line them up, sort them out and spell words with them as she learns. Same with numbers.

[AutismAwakening]

Yes Echolia is a great building block for speech. We are utilizing this and her savant of singing country music to enhance her speech. Great ideas!

[ets]

Thanks Tashia. I'll try the blocks idea and see what we can do with the gibberish. He does repeat words pretty nicely.
Terry:)

[Mom2Nate]

Hi Klovan,
Did you go to Massachusetts for the Son-Rise program? I just
received a packet of books and videos from them and I already read B.Neil Kaufmans FIRST edition of Son-Rise when Raun was only 2. A friend found the book thru a booksearch and gave it to me as a gift. There is something about the program that pulls my interest tremendously. Do you think it is effective? What can you share about it. Someone told me the program was a scam and his son was "just misdiagnosed" and it really unnerved me b/c I think some people out here are afraid to believe in what they already believe is thee impossible. How was the experience for you both? Thanx much
Mom2Nate
(Tess)

[Loretta Fritz]

A quick idea for you-

My son is 8 and was really into lining things up when he was your daughter's age. (I believe you said she was 3.) We had FUN with it. We didn't even have a diagnosis at this point, but he was SO methodical and SO insistant that we didn't have much choice but to go along with him!

We made a huge 'toy train' all around the living room, down the hallway and into his bedroom one time. He was so careful to put like-toys together. Carefully moved others one by one so he could put one where it should go. We took a video of this really long one and Austin loved watching it. It would be fun to make a video and name all the objects, or have your daughter in it. Let her watch it, and then change it for new appeal.

How about digital pictures? Take a picture and show it to her, try arranging things in different groups or sets. Let her try to come up with something new after you have given her an example.

Pictures are fun and a digital camera is instant feedback. Important to use good, simple, consistent language while interacting like this. My son has pretty much grown out of this today. I say work WITH your daughter. If it is something she enjoys and gets comfort from, use it as a launchpad to other activities.

Good Luck!

Loretta

[swimmom200]

Hi--My now 13-1/2 yr old son always lined things up when he was little. Mostly his hot wheels according to style or color. He lined up his Mcd's french fries according to size before he ate them. He has outgrown those things, but he still likes order with certain things. When he was collecting Pokemon cards he loved to rearrange them over and over in different ways. Now he's onto baseball cards. He is very high functioning, but orderliness seems to be a common bond in all autistic kids. Having control over something seems to be a great theory behind this. Teri

[kfoust]

My Son Noah, who is almost 5, also lines up books and movie boxes. About a year ago he also started lining my wife and I up on the floor as well. We just roll with it and use it to get him to sign or say up or down.

[rCARBEE]

My son who is 3 whom I am concerned about and is about to have tested will straighten up things in the house like the videos and likes to line up toys and objects. My daughter who is 15 now was always into lining up toys. One time when i was sick she took all her crayons and lined them up from one side of the house to the next. She went through the gifted program in school. She always was a loner or had one friend in social situations but these were similar characteristics of giftedness. She was also a very strong willed child. I find that all very interesting.

[Deester]

Try to get him interested in Dominoes. Show him how when you knock it down it does this neat little moving show.

You may have a dominoes champion on your hands.

Denise

[rCARBEE]

and a championship top spinner as well!!! I did go out and get dominoes and he laughed so much to see them all fall and helped me line them up.