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When is something an interest versus an obsession?
How does one tell the difference for a 2.5 yo?
Toddlers are creatures of habit and routine, so this may be hard to sort out, but I am curious if any PDD, ASD moms here can tell me how they saw the "difference"
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Re: When is something an interest versus an obsession?
Thank you for all of the info.
For my daughter, it is currently cars. It was trains. She has even said "I looooove my car" "My car home!" in reference to our family vehicle.Thankfully, she does also say "I love my mommy and daddy" w/o prompting.
I will say she mentions/talks about cars allllll day. She also insists on only using a train blanket and a specific car sippy cup. This is where I think she is obsessing. If we don't comply to the blanket and sippy, a tantrum ensues. Since tantrums are rare for her, I know it's out of anxiety.
She also LOVE animals, especially bunnies and bugs and reptiles. She must have two plastic newts with her in bed. She also carries them around often. The whole two of the same thing in her hands at all time is something that screams spectrumish and she most definitely does.
I don't know in your situation if you mean OCD type obsession or not...but I got to the point I wondered with my son if Letters/numbers etc... were Obsessive or not.
Our Psychologist helped me understand true Obsessions are usually (I'd say always, but I can't be sure that's right) going to cause severe anxiety in a negative way - the person with the obsession knows it is unhealthy/bad and receives no joy as a result - except the immediate and very temporary relief that it is done.. until they have to do it again (hand washing as an overt example). I'm no expert on OCD, but that's what I remember of her description that did not fit my son.
A special interest, while still causing increased anxiety in most cases, is going to also going to give them pleasure. My son ramps up in anxiety when allowed to continue with his special interest over and over and over. When I give him a very strict set of rules about when/where/how long/when it will be time to be done (say when he wants to throw a ball and score himself over and over) it is MUCH MUCH easier to ramp him back down and move on to another activity.
I have heard it suggested, if possible, to remove the problem causing stimuli. In some cases, like ours, that is not possible. Numbers, clocks, etc... cannot be removed from the world.
Creating that time/place/limit has been crucial. We started out by joining him and setting a time limit on a clock (which is a preferred thing for him, to look at the clock) that we would play this score game. We moved toward having him 'give us the game for our pocket' and that worked ok for a while in setting a time/place limit.
I'm wondering if you started talking at Breakfast about what cup you will use at lunch, if that would help the transition, "You can have your car cup now, but at lunch you can only have the bear cup..."
At the moment, it is out of control again. We went out of town and this has been a very difficult week. If it is not managed, it will come back very quickly until they can understand some self-regulation. My son is almost 4 and cannot do that yet. At your child's age, I remember being SO CONFUSED about it. Give it some time, the fuzzy lines will clear up some as Auntie said as you enter the Preschool years. The difference in a 2-3 year old is amazing!
I'm wondering if you started talking at Breakfast about what cup you will use at lunch, if that would help the transition, "You can have your car cup now, but at lunch you can only have the bear cup..."
I really like this idea. Thank you