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Joined: May 2014
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Aufilia, I sent you a pm.
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Joined: Sep 2013
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I have thought of this post many times since it started a few weeks ago. My DS 3.5 has a new obsession: writing/making books/spelling. It's ALL DAY. He does this for an hour before preschool, then at preschool, then for hours at home. Just spelling, spelling, spelling, writing and making these little books. It's been about 5 days now. And when he's not sitting down doing the writing, he's spelling outloud. I have a feeling that when he feels this is mastered, it will settle down.
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Joined: Feb 2014
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GGG, my son going to preschool for almost a month and in this month, what he do the most is writing too!!! Before he went to preschool, he keep writing number, and now he write numbers and letters (and some simple words that he can spell e.g. ten, nine, one), he also write some "words" that make up by his own and pretend saying english. I feel like his brain is overwhelm after attending the school, and he seems processing the English right now...
He used to play board games, lego, smart games with me, but now he refuse to play them all, just writing.... =_=
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Joined: Mar 2013
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Do the numbers your son describes stay constant? For example, is 51 *always* rice? Is 100 always a boy & 17 a girl? Do the numbers have "personalities"?
If not, then it could be an ASD-type behavior, an OCD behavior, or even just a particularly strong gifted quirk. It's hard to tell, but good that your pedi is aware & is watching to see how he develops.
If the numbers are personified & those "personalities" remain consistent, then there is only one place I have heard of that - a documentary on a little girl named Joni Schofield, who has childhood-onset schizophrenia. Please do NOT let that alarm you - I have no reason to suspect that diagnosis for your son & am certainly no expert. It just popped into my mind as I read your description & I wanted to point it out in case it is an area of interest. The phenomenon is described below:
"One of the primary symptoms of schizophrenia is the perception and personalization of connections and patterns that do not exist in reality. People tend to make sense of reality and perceive patterns through filters, one of which is numbers. They're the building blocks of pattern recognition and they are also ubiquitous. It's pretty easy to see patterns in numbers that are not there, even if your brain does not have a predisposition towards doing so." Val, My DD has insisted that numbers have personalities so the above triggered a flurry of frantic googling LOL It turns out that it isn't always associated with mental illness and is relatively common. OLP link on wikipedia More info on synesthesia here Even more hereThe poor girl Jani Schofield does experience OLP but it is also accompanied by a litany of other symptoms too; self harm, an entire imaginary place, Calinini, where the characters hurt her and tell her to hurt others etc:- A piece on Jani Schofield I am not a clinician so your YMMV, just a parent trying to do this best for his DD and to stay informed :-)
Last edited by madeinuk; 09/24/14 04:08 AM.
Become what you are
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Joined: Apr 2014
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I don't know how I missed the schizophrenia post...
...but, no, I wouldn't worry about that based only on the descriptions we've heard so far. Quite a few math-minded children perceive numbers as having other qualities. Synesthesia is not particularly unusual (I think I've mentioned that one of my siblings, now a math professor, associates them with colors).
I also would tend to downgrade ASD concerns based on the shifting of his obsessions, and how they correspond with new skill areas. Most children--gifted and otherwise--have periods of focus on mastery of a skill, or working through a developmental problem. It may be more pronounced in GT kids.
...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...
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Joined: Apr 2010
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I also would tend to downgrade ASD concerns based on the shifting of his obsessions, and how they correspond with new skill areas. Most children--gifted and otherwise--have periods of focus on mastery of a skill, or working through a developmental problem. It may be more pronounced in GT kids. Our very clearly ASD DS12 has had shifting obsessions over the years, most of them academic. Sometimes they last a year, in which he quickly masters an enormous body of material at a high level, then he goes on to the next one. What's distinctive about the ASD obsessiveness (again IME) is that it inhibits other kinds of learning and flexibility. That is, the child needs to keep talking about surface temperatures of planets when other kids are trying to engage him in play, or the teacher is saying it's time to clean up. If the obsession is interfering with learning other things, with appropriate social interaction, or with the kind of flexibility that's needed to function in a variety of environments, that's where I would call it a problem rather than a gifted quirk. YMMV, of course. DeeDee
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Joined: Aug 2010
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Oh yes, my DD, about whom I have no concerns re schizophrenia, says numbers have feelings (for example, 7 is a happy yellow number, IIRC, and 8 is green and jealous). She is very obviously synesthetic. It's common to have these associations in synesthesia.
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Joined: Aug 2010
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Also, yes, both of my children have had strong interests but have never had a real tendency at all to "overtalk" them to others or to refuse to shift from them to other topics. In fact, DD is reticent to discuss her birding interest with other kids because she is a bit worried it could be perceived as odd.
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Joined: Apr 2014
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Good point. The social communication impairments are the critical quality for ASD. Focal interests are not the same as restricted interests.
And "interfering" is also the key test that I personally think should be used for whether something is a problem.
...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...
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Joined: Apr 2013
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Did you know, there is a friendship and social skills book for kiddos, Speak Up and Get Along! which is written with each chapter cleverly related to the strengths and characteristics of different birds (with a bit of creative license).
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