Is your child like this too?

Question

my 6 yr old son is the most habitual person (WITHOUT autism) i've ever met. like if one night, you gave him a high-5 after dinner.. he would start doing high5's every single night after dinner.

and when he does his prayers, he says "tankyou.." then every time after the first tankyou, he switches to "THankyou"- he's totally in the habit of messing up and saying "tankyou" first (i notice, because we've corrected him many times, and so i've noticed the habit w/ it now)

i know he is not autistic, but like i said, he makes the smallest little things habitual- not good things either, like picking up his clothes or hanging his towel up.. or anything important

he just makes the smallest things routine- its very noticable to my husband and me, its kinda odd.

does any of this sound familiar- he's extremely bright for his age, reads at a 3rd grade level, wonderful mature (kinda ) sense of humor, almost bizzare sense of apathy for others, way beyond his age- but i know he's not a

Answer 1

He sounds like he needs a lot of control.  He might not can control what he eats for dinner, but he can do a hi5 after dinner.  Most children are control freaks (most adults don't notice, because we control them) and they do little things to control their lives.  My kids don't clean up when I tell them.  Though this keeps them from doing certain things that they want to do, they are in control.  And I tend to see this in children who are intelligent and think a lot.

Answer 2

If these behaviors become disruptive to his functioning in everyday life you might want to get him screened for OCD. Here's 2 websites, see if any of this sounds familiar...

http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocd-in-child...

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/be...

Answer 3

Have you looked into the possibility of Asperger's Syndrome? Just a suggestion. It may be that the behavior you described is just his personality, but it wouldn't hurt to consider autism spectrum disorders.

Answer 4

I have an 8 yr old step son who does things similar to that. He often will make a mistake that we've corrected him on a thousand times and correct himself immediately afterward. He also does weird things like maybe he thinks he'll get in trouble if not done (I tell him all the time he won't) anyway, for example, if he gets out the ladder to get the cereal (which we keep on the fridge), he'll fold up the ladder and go put it away before pouring his cereal, then right after he pours it, he'll go get the ladder again to put the cereal away. I've asked him about this many times and he says he knows its not necessary, but he just does it that way. (drives me up the wall to watch).

Answer 5

Sounds almost like an OCD thing.