Type A Personality?

Lately I’ve been wondering if Luke is developing a Type A personality….almost OCD or something.  He has been “organizing” his toys ever since he learned what it meant to put things “in”.  Over the last couple years he has taken the whole “in” concept to a whole new level.  He spends most of his time playing by taking all his toys (Legos, plastic food, blocks, balls, and whatever medium to small sized objects he can find) and puts them in one place.  Then he finds a new place and puts all of his “toys” in this new spot. 

Some days he puts everything in a drawer somewhere, like the oven drawer, and then turns around and puts everything in his wagon.  Other days he goes back and forth loading up the wagon and an empty box.  While other days he stashes his toys all over, in his Little Tykes kitchen, clothes drawers, and on a shelf under the TV and then goes around with the wagon and puts them all in.  If you interrupt his “toy gathering” he gets VERY upset.  Not just a little cry, but a full blown fussy fit…complete with crying and throwing a toy or two that are close by.

Then there are the times in the last couple months where he has began “organizing” his food.  Because we can’t trust Luke to NOT throw his plate and NOT stuff his mouth so full he can’t even chew, we put all Luke’s food on a plate and then give him a few bites of food at a time.  Mostly we give him finger foods, and when we are able we work on using a fork.  (You can’t trust him completely with a fork either, before you know it the fork can be clear across the room).

So, I give Luke a few bites of grapes or chicken or whatever at a time.  Once Luke gets about half done he has started putting the “bites” I’m giving him back on his plate.  Then once the food is back, he will arrange it the way he wants.  So if there are a couple grapes in two different areas on a plate, he will move them so they are together….and if there are any on the table they go on the plate as well.  Then once they are all in one spot…he proceeds to put all of the grapes in another spot on the plate. 

I think he could do this all day.  So I let him do it a couple times and then tell him to eat and stop playing around.  At first I was pretty concerned about this new “habit” of Luke’s.  It’s good to be organized…but when I see him doing this with so many things…including his food….it makes me wonder if something else is going on.  But these fears are disappearing after talking to one of Luke’s therapists.  She mentioned that a lot of kids that can’t control a lot (like their fine motor or gross motor movements or even their speech), tend to control what they can.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  So now I am trying to understand Luke’s “obsessions” and allow him to control what he can, whenever possible.