my 6 year olds obsession with dnosaurs and dragons (toothless)

I've got to laugh at the notion that any intrest persued passionately can limit ones vocabulary. Do you know how many words I learned being intrested in geology? Theres schist so many of them, its easy to take ot for granite. ( I'll stop )

If that really is a concern perhaps look into roleplaying after all? I could point you at a few places to learn more and even get some free PDFs to try things out. In my experiance moast of us are welcoming and the hobby is also a great way to socalise in controlled conditions.

Nothing widens a vocabulary like knowing how to use bec de'corwyn in concersation [Its a kind of polearm].

omg thank you so much everyone! it is so nice to hear others opinions and saying that it should not be quashed but used in a positive way! it was a speech and language proffessional who told me to do this, as it can limit her vocab etc, but it breaks my heart at the thought of having to force change to her subjects that she speaks to lovingly about!!

i am planning to take her to the museum this summer holiday as a surprise for her, we took her to crazy golf as it had a new dinosaur theme and she loved it! even got into the whole golf game as it was all part of the same thing, whereas normally she would have got bored and had a meltdown, so we had a lovely day and took lots of pics of her with all the statues :D

Personally, I'd not try to quash an intrest, but to widen it.

But I am biassed, becase my parents encoraged my intrest in dinosaurs, which in turn gave way to an intrest in life sciences (via evolution) and circled back from paleantology to geology via deep time and geological record.

Geology is a good feild to be pasionate about for me beause its so broad, runs the gamut from physics and chemistry on the minerological mico-end, to metrology and ecology, and it rests deeply on paleantological roots just as paleantology depends on an understanding of geological processes.

Same with my intrest in mythology. She's got an intrest in dragons? that gives you european legends, chinese mythology, the particular film (If its the film I cant speak of the book to my arguable shame) gives you Norse myth, and the Norse mythological cannon is one of the richest and moast vivid I have encounterd.

I hesatate to sugest this but, have you conciderd role playing games like dungeons and dragons? looking back much of the mathematics at my easy command I learned playing D&D, and as she seems to have no issue telling fantasy from reality it couild help widen her sphere of intrest.

Oh, and it may intrest your daughter to know that *technically* Dinosaurs were not reptiles, but rather their closest modern analoge would be birds. This amoung other things means when we eat chicken, we are eating a dinosaur.

( a few citations, just to bea good scientist, I've tried to favour accessable sorces of good repute:-
National Geographic: phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/.../

Scientific american: www.scientificamerican.com/.../

and one that apears to be from a US University, Berkeley rings a bell but I cant be sure of its exact provenance: www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/.../avians.html )

Hats off to you Treeswaving, you could teach the professionals a thing or two. They seem fixated on making us like them instead of helping us develop as autistic people.

Nldaniels86, I just love the sound of your daughter. She's gained so much knowledge and sorted and arranged it meaningfully. What a  pity the professionals  skate over those huge talents and dismiss it all as a 'special interest'  or an 'obsession'. I find both or their terms dismissive and myself prefer 'area of hyperfocus'.

I used my child's special interest to develop other things.

E.g. maths - do a homework worksheet - numberbonds to 10 - total meltdown over the thought of doing it.

add in the treasured box of cars.

 I have 4 cars, you have 6 cars; how many altogether -  suddenly prepared to count them and dd the worksheet.

Again not a professional - am a mummy to a child with ASD and have ASD myself - if a special interest can be used to complete essential tasks I think it is a good thing.

Taking away my special interests would make me really sad. I can see why people say restrict it  as trying to get the child engaged with more things - but I feel life is so hard trying to fit in anyway - surely in free time it is nice to be engaged with special interests and I really believe these can be used to teach and introduce other things.  

Think how much their reading will come on with dinosaur books. If they are not interested in early readers they will never look at them. But books about dinosaurs, bet they will be keen to learn. all lthe maths skills in learning to bake - no interest intially in the idea perhaps - but bet they would if you made dinosaur shaped cookies.

Hi,

 I'm not a Psycyatrist, but Personally I wouldn't limit her at all, but I would broaden her exposure to other interests and more opotunities to social interactions.

She clearly loves her special interest and gets great joy from shariing her knowledge with others. It's when it becomes her sole interest that things can become limiting.

Their are social use of language programmes out their, which can help her with reciprocal interaction, but broadening her knowledge base, perhaps even to something with a tenuious link to dinosaurs initially, will give her a greater range of knowledge to share and will make interactions with others a little less stilted.

Many with her level and extent of knowledge about a given subject have gone on to become experts in their field in later life, but have also aquired the social skills and supplimentary interests necessary to give them a more rounded approach when interacting with others.

Introduce her to the Natural History Museum and areas other than the dinosaur section and see what else she finds interesting.

Her only limitation is the exposure she recieves.

Enjoy and celebrate her unique gift and interests, but keep opening her world to a broader View.

Take Care

C.