Lining up toys and autism

Reviewing other autism themed blogs, I came across the subject of lining up toys and objects. This led me to review old pics of mine and I came across a pic of my oldest lining up car themed books in the Barnes and Noble bookstore when he was young. I thought it was clever how the books were designed with car wheels attached to the bottom. He is fascinated with cars and was therefore drawn to these books. He was also drawn to hot wheel and matchbox cars. We spent several hours perusing these toys in both Target and Walmart, selecting a car to take home. He would then line up the cars and roll the wheels across his stomach and face.

My youngest would also line up toys but preferred legos and blocks. His preference led him to line up toys in a stacking fashion, building towers. I found a pic of him building a tall tower of legos also at the Barnes and Noble bookstore. He was interested in playing the angry birds game at the time and said the tower was like in the angry birds game.

Both boys preferred parallel play alongside other peers their age versus interactive play. They would be entertained by their toys in their own unique play but did show an interest in having other kids playing nearby.

Feel free to share your own experiences with play patterns such as lining up toys. I feel it shows a level of intellect unique to autism.