Lining up and counting his toys.

Both of the kids do this, but DS does it most often. He lines up his toys (20 or so) in a big long line across the room or along the couch or on the stairs. Then he counts them. They're all character toys (potato heads, toy story, animals, etc.) and he calls them his friends. Sometimes he gives them "toys" of their own to play with (a flashlight or book). It's just hilarious to watch!

Anyone else see this in their 3 year old? Does it "mean" anything? Is he obsessive??? LOL Just wondering... :icon_biggrin:

 

LOL, I think it sounds cute and helpful for when you need to organize!!!

 

Interesting. My boys are about a year younger than your kids, but I have one who does this w/ this cars. He loves anything w/ wheels, and he takes as many cars as he can carry and lays on the floor or couch on his side and lines up the cars. He doesn't count yet, but he lines them up in one direction and then randomly lines them up in the other direction. This goes on for quite a while and he is very content. I don't know if there's anything more to it or not but it's interesting to watch him!

HTH
Alicia

 

Joe's been doing this since he could pull-up on the furniture and spare a hand to grab a toy. We call it his 'sorting'. It's very, VERY methodical and he gets incredibly stressed if he is interrupted or has to share any of the items he considers to be included in his 'sort'. He's pretty equal opportunity about what it is he is sorting. His all-time favorite is pans, but he'll sort tupperware, empty boxes, junk mail, toys, anything.

I do think that this sort of behavior is absolutely normal in toddlers....but not to the extent that Joe does it. I'm pretty sure he has some OCD issues, but so do both DH & I and it hasn't killed us yet. I like quirky kids. I actually find that (when he's not getting stressed about 'sort interference') the process is actually very calming for him.

 

John has always sorted, categorized, named and befriended his toys. He even can categorize based on WHO gave him the toy. :lol: I think its just a methodical mind at work. Maybe Connor will be an engineer or something when he gets older.

 

my nephew did that... lol my sister was like great he will be ocd like you... (attention to detail and ocd are different I reminded her) It was when he was lining up his hot wheels according to color and type of vehicle that cracked me up... that is how I organize my closet. type color lol but now he is 5 and he is super ocd. I think it is just a boy thing during that age. I know several boys that were like that.

he also has memorized all john deer tractors, trains, and now ww1 and ww2 fighters. You can show him a picture and he can tell you make model and year on almost any of them. it is crazy!

 

[SIZE=12pt]Michael's been doing this since he has been 18 months old. He counts EVERYTHING. He is a wonderful counter, but I worried too, A LOT! He really focuses on counting...counts every piece of cereal, counts rocks, cars, toys...everything. I thought he might have Asperger's or a form of autism since my older step son has it.

Then I just figured maybe he has some kind of math genius or a strength in ordering and sequencing. I took him to Early childhood specialists at the school I work at. They said he was fine and not to worry. So I still hope it is nothing, and maybe you and I can "not worry" together!

Bridget[/SIZE]

 

My almost two year old has been doing this for a while. She doesn't officially correctly count them, but she'll count to 15 (which is what she's gotten up to in the counting area) and point at different toys (there's not necessarily 15 there).

She loves lining stuff up and classifying things too. Like all red things in a neat pile, all blue things in another neat pile, etc.

 

Ryan does this with his little cars. He lines them all up and often organized by color. If you even attempt to take one to play with him he gets very upset.

 

Nolan lines things up all the time. Cars, little people, my kitchen chairs.

 

Even my guys who are busy bodies and have very short attention spans will line up and count things of one kind. They just did this with their french toast strips this morning. Totally normal.

 

I used to line up the little plastic farm animals (they were having a parade, thank you very much!) or my dolls all the time.

I sure hope its normal 8P

 

Is he in preschool? I teach the 4-5 year olds at our center and I know the 3 year old class is where they start focusing on pointing and counting objects accurately. I'd personally say it's developmentally appropriate.

 

Thank you everyone for the wonderful responses! I'm so happy to hear we're not the only ones. (Not that I really thought we were, but you KWIM...)

We do preschool at home and we have done some counting of objects but nothing like this. I'll just continue to enjoy watching him and look forward to seeing if it turns into an interest in math or engineering or something like that.

 

my boys do this too, I like it!

 

DH says that at 3, he'd wake up every morning and the first thing he had to do after breakfast was line up his trucks. Every morning. He turned out to be a very non-math person, but otherwise quite smart

 

My DD lines all her animals up on her bed each night. Each one has its place!

 

Addie has been doing this for the last year as well. Sometimes Chloe will join in but mostly it is Addie.

 

We have liners/counters here, too!

 

My 2 year old does that with his food. Yogos are his favorite to count. He can't count that high though. He tries to get to 10, but always misses the 5. Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. He's just a little boy. Maybe it's just a phase he'll grow out of.

 

I wish my girls would line things up and sort them! I keep hearing what a normal toddler thing it is and wondering when they are going to start doing it. So far, they are still stuck on: Put all the trains INTO the dump truck. Dump all the trains OUT of the dump truck. Put all the trains back INTO the dump truck... They are obsessive about plenty of things, but they're not at all linear!

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Mar 16 2008, 09:17 PM) [snapback]672134[/snapback]
I wish my girls would line things up and sort them! I keep hearing what a normal toddler thing it is and wondering when they are going to start doing it. So far, they are still stuck on: Put all the trains INTO the dump truck. Dump all the trains OUT of the dump truck. Put all the trains back INTO the dump truck... They are obsessive about plenty of things, but they're not at all linear!


LOL. Ours still do that too! (Inbetween all the lining up...)

 

James likes to line up cars. He'll find all the toy cars he can and make a big long line of them. Then he sits back and says "Choo choo!" :laughing: He gets really angry if you move his cars while he's sorting them but he seems quite happy during the process. I have some OCD tendencies so I'm not terribly surprised.