What does it mean??

[Ken S.]

When I was a very young child I liked to take my toys out of the cardboard boxes & toss them in the corner of the room and draw on the box. I would draw cars, submarines, Rocket ships and play in the cardboard boxes all day long. My parents eventually quit getting toys & just got crayons & boxes for me until I reached the age when I wanted to actually play with the toys. Why do children do these things? Because it is what they enjoy. Do you really need any other explanation?

 

[Aspychata]

I often keep a pile of books or other things on my bed that I am using, or thinking about using. And I agree, spreading them out to take inventory, or because it would look cool to see a bunch all laying out, especially those by the same author or those of a series. I did that with my Sweet Pickles books.

I used to keep the original boxes for my toys, and stack them neatly in my closet. It was more exciting to open it out of its original box, kinda like getting a new toy again. Things like the smells of rubber tires and styrofoam would accumulate again.

Then after that was over, I would take it apart, put it back together, sometimes modify it. I didn't so much build things to play with them. I built things to see if I could mimic real systems, or to run tests and see how much weight it could pull or how much or a slope it could climb with and without soap on the ramp, or how much power it could take before something broke. I used a lot of Goody hair elastics as motor belts and the smell of burnt rubberbands was pretty common in my room.

I would also sort my Crayola 64 pack a certain way, and it would bother me if someone messed with it.

In college I had my own cheap record player that I used occassionally. But more often I would pretend it was a lathe and would use a screwdriver to shave curls of plastic off the disc. It was both addicting and relaxing.

Here's what my daughter did with her Halloween candy at age 2. Part of the photo is cut off but she sorted out all the candy.

View attachment 52437

Thanks, my daughter always dumped her candy out and it was spread out. l remember going to my grandmothers home as a young girl and organzing her hoarding collection of nicknacks everywhere. For me the comforts me, because sometimes things are out of my control. When l go out, l like to be organized chorewise. My daughter constantly put all her things out, l never knew if l should say something or not, so basicslly at some point , l would nicely ask her to straighten up.

 

[WolfSpirit]

When I was a kid I used toys in a way that was not their intended use. I liked to sort crayons by color combinations instead of coloring with them. I liked to stack things like coins or blocks by size, not to build something.
Mom told me when I was about 2 or 3 I would turn on the turntable, not to play records but would pretend it was an air conditioner. Lol.

IOW, typical autistic behaviour.

 

[WolfSpirit]

I have a friend who has autism. She likes to take all of her toys out of the plastic bins they're in and put them on the floor every once in a while. When asked to clean up, she is compliant. She doesn't take the toys out of the bin out of anger, but more methodically. Today, she took out all of her toys/books from her shelves and put them on her bed. This isn't the first time this has happened. Does anyone have any explanation as to why she did that?

Does she have the communication skills that would allow her to tell you why if you asked her about it? Maybe the best way to find out the answer is to just ask her.

You didn't mention it, but does she line them up? This is a typically autistic way to play. (in fact, lining toys up, or using them to stim on rather than play with are part of the diagnostic criteria.)

 

[tree]

Speaking of "what does it mean," since I'd never
seen "IOW" used in a reply, I had to look up what
that meant.

IOW

I am guessing the intended meaning was "in other words."

 

[WolfSpirit]

Speaking of "what does it mean," since I'd never
seen "IOW" used in a reply, I had to look up what
that meant.

IOW

I am guessing the intended meaning was "in other words."

Am I showing my age in netspeak acronyms?