Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi this is our first post just looking to get some advice or tips to help with obsessive behaviour. My sons current obsession is rubiks cubes. He knows everything about them and can solve all different cubes in seconds. I am just wondering if anyone else has found obsessions with their kids and how you get around it? We have just started having cube free time but he really struggles with this. He can't be away from the cubes it has to be a constant thing all day long. This isn't the first obsession he has had but this time things seem alot harder to get him off the subject. Any advice or tips welcome on how to help in anyway. We are still waiting on his autism assessment to he completed but because of covid its pushed back again.
Thanks
Interesting! I was also obsessed with the Rubik Cube when it first came out in the 70's, actually I wasn't generally good at maths or into puzzles - I wasn't naturally able to solve the Rubik Cube but I bought a little pamphlet which contained a step by step method and quickly managed to memorise it enabling me to finish all the sides in about 30 seconds. I can't tell you how much this impressed my parents at the time! All the points made by Plastic are spot on, the cube and similar puzzles are good stimming toys are definitely soothing and stress relieving and should be encouraged as much as possible. Your son sounds like a genius, good luck with the diagnosis.
you're welcome.
If he's solving a cube at 8 then he's something special - are you able to feed the vast amount of data and technology that he'll be craving? There's literally no limit to what he can learn - the more interesting things you can put in front of him the better.
I was a 'special' kid of the late 60s - I could eat through encyclopedias as fast as I could get my hands on them and I watched the whole space race / moon landings. I ended up as a chartered engineer / rocket scientist / nuclear physicist!
Try picking up things like old Haynes manuals - lots of pictures and nerdy stuff in them - and ask friends for old broken tech - and get him some good screwdrivers so he can dismantle and explore all the stuff he gets.
Be prepared for lots of junk!
The Technical Lego with Mindstorms is lots of fun.
Thank you for your reply. I will try those ideas. He is really amazing at maths he can do huge sums mentally and has been able to since he was 3 years old. At nursery he use to write numbers all day long. We just need his autism assessment to come back soon.
Our world is full of chaos and stress - watching people breaking rules and hearing lies and manipulations. It's a living hell. We love logic and calm.
Solving problems gives us control over our world for a little while - it's soothing - stimming - and pleasing to win against the chaos.
I'd guess that at 8, your son is just starting to get very stressed by his chaotic surroundings and the cube is his little world of order - and a skill that bullies do not have - why would you want to interfere with that?
Something you could do is find other puzzles for him to solve - and maybe getting Lego with the little microcomputer - something gentle that he can 'see through' and master- programming a thing to follow his instructions is a useful, transferable skill for him.
Your son sounds very bright for his age - don't let it slip through his fingers - encourage his problem solving.
Other things he might like are taking old clocks to bits and seeing inside things - old broken tech is fascinating to dismantle and see inside.