Lines, Lines, Everywhere Lines

When the boys were younger, they would line up toys. Everywhere they went there lines of shoes, cars, trains, pens, and more. If the cars and trains were lined up, it didn't seem so bad as a parent.  

Trains are meant to line up.  You piece them together and push them on tracks. It seems logical and follows typical play. Then cars would line up and it wasn't a huge alert because cars line up in traffic jams all the time. 

Until my child continued to line up the little cars. Then it starts to click in this autism parents head.  You realize that the child is only lining the cars up, they aren't parking the cars in a parking lot or racing the cars. The cars are forming long kind all over the house.  At a certain point, you get it.  That's not a typical way to play with a bunch of cars. 

As a parent of two puzzle pieces, when my NT princess lined up all of the kids shoes in the front hallway, I was filled with a moment of fear.  I hear about regressive autism often. The child appeared to develop on track and then stopped abruptly.   Poor Lane had to sit down and have a conversation with me in an effort to calm my fears. It's fascinating how such a small thing like lining items can now elicit fear.  

(The shoes were in perfect lines prior to taking the photo)