Grandaughter's Behavior

it's all a part of the learning process. Try giving her a box of HotWheels & see what happens! Most kids will line them up precisely over & over again.

If the behavior continues & seems to apply to more of her life, then I would recommend talking to the dr. Otherwise, it's just a part of toddler thru preschool years! For my kids, we used that need for linear order for beginning counting & sorting skills. As in...."let's count the cars", "let's put the red cars over here, & the yellow ones here"....any variation to get the kids learning in a fun & hand-on way! Hope all goes well.

I don't think that this is such a big deal. To me it shows great organization skills. There's nothing wrong wit being a little anal (lol) just as long as she doesn't freak out when it doesn't go her way then let her go!

You didn't mention her age, but I think it's normal behavior for small children, assuming there's nothing else alarming going on. Kids learn about their world from sorting and organizing things. Parents as teachers has lots of fun actitivites just involving sorting and organizing by shape, size, color etc. If everything else seems ok, I wouldn't worry.

Hi M.!
How old is your granddaughter? My son is a little over 2 years old and he does the same thing. I mentioned it to his doctor and she said that is normal. My son is very particular. He likes them all to be facing the same direction, in a row. I never really thought much of it but since my mom always comments on this behavior I figured I'd ask his pediatrician. And I was right--no reason to worry!

Hi Marlyn, I don't see the age of your granddaughter in your letter, but I have a grandson, 4 and a half years old who we call "Little Monk", after the TV show Monk. Everything has to be lined up perfectly, the toilet paper on the roll must lined up with the next perferation at the top, all magazines must be stacked neatly, even the refrigerater magnates must be in perfect alignment. All things must be in order. He is extrememly bright, with a photraphic memory. He is in preschool, and can already spell the names of his classmates, and reads billboards as we drive down the highway. Life must be in order for him!! We just accept this as part of who he is, the doctor says his health is normal, he is just very observant. Niether of his parents is this "anal", and I certainly am not. It is just "who he is". He may be the one to cure cancer, or send a man to Mars. Unles your granddaughter's behaviour starts to affect the quality of her life, don't worry about her.It is just who she is. Order just seems to be more important to some people than others!! Let her be herself, and love her for it!! Good luck, D. R.

My daughter did this same thing. And of couse it was right after I read an artile that said it could be autisim. I went to the doctor a nervous wreck. He's a very paitient man (ha!), he just smiled and told me not to worry that lining things up and sorting them is a pre-curser to reading. And the daughter that I had do that - is a great reader and loves reading. So I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter at 2 would sort and line up all her shoes also, once I knew it wasn't anything bad, I thought this was great. She's 8 now - no longer lines those shoes up in neat little rows - Darn!!

Well depending on age it could be practicing skills or practicing expectations from home. I wouldn't worry unless there are signs of panic when things become disarranged. I would make sure that she knows its ok for things to be a little disorganized. I would talk to your daughter and ensure she isn't to hard on her when she makes a mess. some parents who are anal or OCD will punish their kids for not being neat enough. But do watch for signs of like panic attacks. Some people who are OCD with have them if things become disorganized. Otherwise enjoy the order while it lasts.

You didn't mention her age but it sounds perfectly normal to me. This is actually one of the tools teaches use for pre math learning. I have three children. They all did it and I was concerned because my husband is on the anal side. But much to my dismay they all grew out of it and are now your normal children who can keep their rooms clean to save their lives and can never remember where the dish washer is. LOL

You didn't mention how old your grandaughter is -- my son also did stuff like that when he was 2-3 years old. It was a bit creepy, actually! I asked the pediatrician about it and he said it was normal. It did pass eventually. I wouldn't worry about it.

Not sure of her age, but it sounds like she is sequencing...putting things in a line, an order. This is math! She's building her math skills which I'm certain a teacher can explain with much greater insite, but it's completely normal and great! My son used to take all the cd's out of the bins, which I had in a particular order, and line them up across the floor...stretching through rooms. Although I couldn't put my fingers on that favorite cd without searching, I was pleased to see him do this, knowing that his brain was developing!

Personally I would not be concerned if my son did this. He tends to like things neat and in a row, ever since he was much younger (he's 31/2 now). I think he gets this behavior from his dad who always likes things very neat and orderly (he married the wrong wife! haha!)

How old is she? This may be perfectly normal for her age. My son who is now four used to do things like that and he still does like things organized at times.

Good Morning Grams,I believe it is just fine. Corbin 4, will get sticks and line them up from shortest to longest.
When he and his little brother Zane ( 23 Mo.) play cars sometimes (not always) they line them up like on a race track, takes a while for each car to make it around the track. lol Especially when Zane comes along and kicks them further along...lol
She probably has a tad bit of OCD.
I have a tad bit my self, sometime I count drive ways or the white lines on the road, phone poles. I also put words in sentences on commercials or road signs in ABC order...lol I can control it though and stop. It doesn't stop me from being a avid reader or letter writer.

God Bless you M.

K. Nana of 5

I wish that I knew how old your grand daughter is. It is normal for them to line things up and to sort them by color or what items are alike. This is usually a sign that they are close to being able to be potty trained. My son is almost 3 and just started lining his cars up. I have been waiting for it so that we might be able to start potty training him.
Now if she is anul (sp?) about stuff she will not like it if you mess up what she has done and will not sort them another way. For example, it has to be by color and not by what is alike, for example fire trucks can go in one pile together or they can be sorted by colors. If she will only sort by color and not by what is alike then she might be anul.
Over all I would not be worried about it at all.

I didn't have time to read all responses. Just wanted to tell you that it really depends on the child's age and the degree to which she is pre-occupied with the task or obsessed with it. If a toddler, for example, stays with such a task for an hour and is very difficult to distract, I would suggest having her assessed.

Although a demonstration of organizational skills may indicate one type of intelligence, you have to consider how this skill integrates and balances with other behaviors. For example, some children develop remarkable language skills at an early age and parents easily interpret this as a sign of extraordinay intelligence. But, some children who present with execeptional language skills may be able to remember and recite remarkable amounts of information they are given, but still are unable to compose their own sentence. These children are the opposite of dyslexic. They are hyperlexic. They could recite the preamble of the constitution, but cannot ask for a glass of water.

So, you want to consider how tempramental she is about such a project and how completely lost she can become in it. Is she also developing social skills? Does she react terribly disturbed if other things seem out of order to her?

It may just be a new skill she is enjoying, so I would not get too easily alarmed. But, I would observe with interest.

The other moms are right. That is totally normal and if she's doing it a lot she's pretty smart. My son a year ago lined up all of his cars from one side of the house to the other. Yes, it's math but I also wanted to include that my Parents As Teachers lady told me that helps them for reading too, since they follow a line like following a sentence.

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone saw my daughter do the same exact thing and try to tell me that she has OCD! She's 2 yrs old and it's a developmental stage of their learning. I've even talked to my Parent As Teachers educator and she told me that there is nothing wrong. So there's nothing to worry about - it's just a normal stage in her life.

Your granddaughter needs to be evaluated for autism. This is one of the things autistic children do. My son did the same thing beginning right before his second birthday. He even lined things up in rainbow order-and had not beeen taught the rainbow order! Sometimes he would line his cars up as to shades of red, blue, etc. from lightest to darkest, again not having been taught. Do not delay getting her checked out. The longer you wait, the harder it is to get treatment. Good luck!

My son did that too. From the time he could grasp and manipulate his toys, he would line them up. Especially his toy cars. He lined them up perfectly before he even figured out how to roll them around.
He grew up to be EXTREMELY intelligent,though he does get easily irritated with imperfection.
This could be (notice I said COULD, not IS) an early sign of mild autism. As long as your child seems normal in every other way, and her development is right on target, don't worry. She is probably just a little bit smarter than the rest of us, and will have to learn to tolerate the world as we are.

I'm not sure how old your granddaughter is, but lining toys and objects up is often a pre-reading skill. They can start doing this quite early in age.

I don't know how old she is, but lining things up is a sign of wanting to read. My daughter is 4 and has been doing that for a while and it's one of those skills that kids learn before they start to read. You have a granddaughter who wants to be neat and is ready to read, it doesn't get much better!!!!

M.,
I don't know how old your grand daughter is but I know my daughter went through a stage of that, and still does it at times. It is her way of organizing her world and categorizing. I think it is a normal part of development.

I'm not an expert and would never want to tell you what to do, but hopefully it will ease your mind a bit to know my daughter did that same exact thing for a few years. She is 4 years old now and has abandoned that completely and is a total slob :).

My son did that too. It's normal for kids to expirament with sorting and arranging items. I have a picture of him arranging froot loops by color all in a row when he was 2. He's still very particular about how he displays things in his room. (I should say some things, the rest of the room is a complete disarray!) It's possible she may have some obsesive tendencies, but I wouldn't worry too much.

she is doing math or reading. My son started stacking his big lego blocks by color and size before he was a year old and would get upset if someone mixed them up. I thought it was strange too then but he turned out fine. He has always been very organized and likes his room a certain way. He is also very smart and has never struggled in anything at school, is in college classes and honor classes and rarely studies. He was reading 4th grade level in Kindergarten, I don't know if the organizing stuff by color and size all the time had anything to do with that but out of our 3 kids he was the only one that did that when he was very little and is a high achiever and loves to read, and everything seems easy to him as far as school work goes. He is now 17, a hard worker and makes friends very easily and is does not have OCD as far as keeping things clean now but is my best worker when he does have time to be home doing chores. The other 2 are smart too but have to actually study and work at it a little more and really aren't interested in doing anything more than they have to.

I think this a normal thing that alot of little ones go through. My nephews seemed very OCD when they were little and I was concerned. They would have to wipe off the table if they got crumbs on it before they could finish eating. They would have to change their shirts in the middle of eating if they even got a drop of something on it. They would even brush the carpet so that it would all go the same way. Their dad is a little OCD himself but they have seemed to outgrow these behaviors. There could be a problem but I'm sure it is just normal developmental stuff. Just keep an eye on her. Enjoy your grandbaby!

You have a future math whiz on your hands!

Mamas, just because a kid lines things up DOES NOT MEAN that it's autism. This characteristic is so far down on the list of symptons - there are so many more important things to watch for.

Sorting is a precursor for reading and math. It is something that you want your child to do. Buy the girl some counting bears and watch her go!

I'm going to go line up my soup cans in the pantry...

How old is your granddaughter? If she is a toddler/preschooler, these behaviors are perfectly normal. It's her way of trying to understand the world. Surprisingly, my parent educator also said that lining things up is a pre-reading skill, as text is usually written in lines. My 2-year old son will spend 15 minutes or more lining up cars, then moving them into a different line. Many of his little friends do the same thing. So, most likely, it is okay!