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From Baby to Preschool Play
The Wonderful World of Child's Play as They Grow
By Renee Roberson
"He was fixated on lining up the trains and manipulating them in different ways, but he never actually drove them on the track or pretended they were trains," Acklie says. "For a 4-year-old to not be interested in that type of dramatic play was a concern to me." She watched the child on different days after that and noticed he was more interested in sorting and organizing objects and toys, but never actually played with them. The boy was later diagnosed with having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Things to watch for as you observe your child playing, which could be signs of potential autism spectrum disorders, include the following:
- Unusual physical movements: There may be some physical awkwardness or seeming lack of coordination, such as difficulty alternating feet while walking down stairs, unsteady balance, walking into objects and difficulty coordinating the use of both sides of the body (jumping jacks, riding a bike, swinging the arms while running, etc.).
- Unusual interests: The child is likely to be interested in something other than the interests of peers, including (but not limited to) electronics, transportation, outer space, maps, a particular academic area (science, geography, math), toilets, doors or some other particular object or topic. The area of interest may change over time, but is likely to be intense, to the exclusion of other objects or topics. Parts of objects may interest the child more than the whole (wheels or doors on a toy car as opposed to the whole car), and the child may develop unique ways of playing with toys (lining them up in a particular order, etc.).
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