Let me start off with an apology. I read pretty much everything here, but jump into other discussion threads less often because I don't really have much in the way of experience to share. I regret that because I know that a good message board member posts in all threads, not just starting her own. I intend to do that, but since we are just starting out in this journey, please forgive me if my posts are sporadic.
I�d love to share an observation with all of you and ask if anyone has dealt with this issue when your children were younger (or now) and how you handled it. Graham is 2y10m old.
Graham is obsessed with numbers. I don�t use the word obsessed lightly. He eschews normal 3 year old toys to flip through the huge phone book looking at all the words and numbers. He jumps up in excitement when he gets to page 865 or whatever little goal page he has set in his head. He loves the crossword books my husband has. He likes all the numbers in the boxes. His favorite �toy� is a huge over-sized calculator that my parents bought him. When we are at other people�s homes (like last night when we went to a playgroup after school), he stands in their kitchen and stares at the clock on the microwave, announcing each new minute as it appears. Woe to the hostess who is actually cooking something in the microwave, he won�t move away from watching the numbers until the timer beeps.
His favorite activity to do with me is math on his chalkboard � I write out addition and subtraction problems and he gives me the answers, or we just write out big numbers (into the hundreds of thousands). He also LOVES Chutes and Ladders because the numbers go to 100.
My concern is that he doesn�t play with other kids much. Graham�s teacher reports that he only engages in group play about 25% of the time, and last night, at the playgroup, not at all. When the object he is obsessing over is removed, i.e. when we put the phone books away for the night, take the CD player out of his room (he will stare at the track counter and memorize the song numbers until very late at night), he goes crazy. Inconsolable crying. Teacher at school confirms this behavior in class as well.
So I guess my question to all of you is: are/were your children obsessed with something? And if that obsession lead to undesirable behaviors (refusing to stay in bed, anti-social habits), did you take away or try and redirect the interest?
My husband feels that we shouldn�t let him lose himself in these activities like he does. On one hand I feel like if this is Graham�s thing, let him go to it. And maybe true interactive play doesn�t start until later (although I see kids his same age in his class playing together all the time). On the other hand, I want him to learn to play and interact with other kids and letting him sit for, literally, 40 minutes at a stretch punching numbers on a calculator or reading a phone book doesn�t help that goal.
Any experience and wisdom you can share on how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
