Repetitive behaviour Autistic kids vs NT kids

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I've often seen repetitive behaviour in NT toddlers, even though it says that one of the first signs to look for in Autistic toddlers is repetitive behaviour.

I've seen toddlers play on a slide countless times in a row; going up the ladder, sliding down the slide, then running back to the ladder again, lots and lots of times. Or I've seen toddlers become fascinated by something spinning or something you lift or pull up and down and they repetitively spin/pull it until their parents take them away, which usually results in a tantrum.

So what are the differences between repetitive behaviour in typically developing kids and in Autistic kids?

Not too sure but I think of it like this. Been trying to think of it myself too.

NT toddlers obviously do engage in repetitive behaviors and even lining things up is natural and part of them developing.

I think it probably has to do with the extent it goes on for, the age, and what else the kid does.

I think almost all if not all toddlers have lined things up at some point. It shows an understanding - like a 2 year old putting things in size order or whatever. It will eventually stop as the child ages, and he has no problems playing with other kids or any of the other symptoms of autism. An NT kid may, say, line up his cars. However, in his mind they are lining up in order to race. Or maybe the road has traffic or something like that. They may line things up as part of imaginary play.

However, for an autistic kid that may be literally all they do and past the age that it would be normal at. What the "normal" age is I don't know. They don't do any imaginary playing, they do it nonstop for all the time they are awake, and they don't age out of doing it.

Those are the only differences I can think of and obviously I have no source on that or anything. I know that it's a good thing to be lining up when they're toddlers but I think it should stop when they get older or something. It's just the way I've been trying to think of the difference. Every time there is a toddler with things in a line another site I go on, imgur, has comments about autism but people always correct them and what I've wrote down is what I've learnt from imgur too. They gave sources but I can't remember them.

I remember lining toys up when I was a kid. That was part of imaginary play.

This is what has me frustrated about this whole trend of diagnosing autism younger and younger. I understand why it is being done. Since the genetics/environmental research has been proven too complicated, the idea now is to diagnose in babys for the purpose of giving ABA to deflect the autism and making them "normal" at an age when brains are in the early development stage and most easily can be wired in the preferred manner.

The vast majority of young children I have dealt with in my nearly 6 decades on this earth do things over and over and over. Even the social differences sometimes do not become apparent until the tween years. I wonder how often parents claiming they "recovered" there kids via ABA or diet is really a case of their kids maturing typically.

I think the difference is autistic toddlers will do it for a really long time, hours while normal toddlers only do it for a few seconds such as hand flapping. I think it's harder to notice when the kid is milder. It may seem like normal behavior if an aspie toddler does it. Also a toddler's tantrum or meltdown only lasts for a few minutes and then they are over it while an autistic toddler will go longer. My NT son has lined stuff up but he didn't do it for long and he didn't do it all the time so that could be a difference there too because autistic toddlers will probably do it all the time and for longer periods of the time than a normal toddler.

I remember lining stuff up as a kid but I am not sure if it was due to autism or just being a normal kid. I always thought it was normal behavior and was surprised this was autism. Then I thought I had that trait and now I am not so sure anymore when I discovered it is indeed normal behavior. This is why I say it's harder to tell when the kid is milder.

I had some repetitions.

Echolalia was one of them, I used to have STRICT rituals, whenever I would 'do my business' I would stack objects intently, every time. Before bed I would empty my closet and pile my clothes in my door way, I'd wash my hair and bathe in a specific pattern. I was also very obsessed with my baby bottle.

Repetition is just more intense with an autistic child.

A NT Child may watch the same movie over and over, a autistic child NEEDS to watch the same movie over and movie

I think the difference is that autistic child will do their one favorite repetitive behavior for hours a day and hours in a row. Minutes of repetition is normal, but 8 hours a day is not.

I have often seen young kids repeat things for 1 to 2 hours before the parents get tired of it enough to intervene and tantrum like behavior often has followed.

Almost all autistic behaviours are typical behaviours before a certain age. What makes it different is the way that autistic children do them and also the length of time that they do them for.

When NT children do repetitive things, they tend to be social while doing it. If your child goes down the slide repeatedly and refuses to interact with you or do ANYTHING else at all, that ain't normal. If your child goes down the slide repeatedly and interacts with other kids, asks you to watch them, pretends to be superman as they go down, etc., that's normal toddler behaviour.

A lot of NT babies throw stuff out of their crib/high-chair/whatever repeatedly. Typical NT baby behaviour. Oh yes, it's repetitive. BUT, it's also very social. They're doing it because they want you to get it for them. It's about you getting it for them, not about the act of throwing it. My son used to throw stuff over the baby gate (when he was a toddler), but if I got it for him, he'd be pissed. He didn't want me to get it. He didn't want me to interact with him at all. He just wanted to throw the stuff. He would watch fly through the air. When the stuff was gone, he'd climb over the baby gate to get it himself. (Luckily for him, he is extremely tall).

In addition to it not being an exclusive behaviour, NT children tend to do stuff for less time, as mentioned.

Also, they stop doing it at an earlier age. My 16 year old has no language. Well, most infants have no language either, BUT they learn to talk shortly afterwards. Likewise, while a toddler may do the same thing over and over, they should have stopped by a certain age.

If you watch footage of a baby showing signs of autism, it should be pretty clear if you compare it to an NT baby (if this is old footage so we now know the 'outcome'). I'm not sure if I'm explaining them well, but there definitely are differences.

While the why might be different when they are so young it is very hard if not impossible to know why. Unless there is extreme atypical behavior it is questionable to diagnose say at 6 months old.

We are used to guessing though because guessing is the only way to ever know what a baby or non-verbal older child wants. The why changes how the behaviour looks. You CAN see differences in repetitive behaviour in NT toddlers and autistic toddlers. Diagnosing at 6 months is a goal, but as far as I know, it's EXTREMELY rare for that to actually happen at the moment as the research isn't quite there yet.

As it happens, one way to allow parents to stop guessing why their non-verbal kids do x, y, and z is to have early diagnosis, short waiting lists, and better therapy, so those kids have a better shot to learn how to tell their parents why instead!