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RetroGamer87
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08 Nov 2022, 10:47 pm

MrAnderson wrote:
Hi there,

My (soon to be) 6-year-old son is completely obsessed with flags and countries. He will name every flag he sees and draws or makes flags with legos or on drawing apps on an iPad. I'm looking for any thoughts or ideas as a Parent, should I be encouraging him to learn more? I also noticed that our son tends to go through cycles of fixations, earlier it used to be Numberblocks. Is this common with ASD?


Sounds like he's having fun


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Aspie1
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08 Nov 2022, 11:09 pm

Worthless wrote:
You could buy some flag based coloring books or print out some flag based coloring pages. Making sure of course that the flags are real and accurate.

You could also buy a set of miniature world flags or work on making flags out of whatever as a fun arts project. Even drawing or painting then on paper ect..

It's also a good way to teach a child the concept of classification. Many of world's flags have matching elements: the pan-Slavic tricolor, the Muslim crescent, the Southern Cross, etc. In other words, many Eastern European flags have red, white, and blue stripes (no relation to the US flag), many Middle Eastern flags have a lunar crescent, and Australia and New Zealand have the Southern Cross constellation. Have the child look similar flags next to each other, look for what they have in common, and ask questions why.

The "classification" part can also be a good way to branch out into history, mythology, and/or geography. For instance, Eastern European counties share Slavic roots, Middle Eastern flags have crescents because of Islam, and Southern Hemisphere countries' flags have that constellation because that's what they see in the sky.



Last edited by Aspie1 on 08 Nov 2022, 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lostonearth35
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08 Nov 2022, 11:11 pm

I just love how when an NT kid is fascinated by something, people are like, "that's their hobby and it's wonderful and it should be encouraged", but when the kid has ASD and is fascinated by the exact same thing people are like "that's their obsession, it's a symptom of their illness and that's terrible".

But then again, nobody knew I had ASD when I was a teenager and they thought my fascination with drawing cartoons wasn't normal for my age and tried to make me take up stuff I had no interest in. i guess they thought the other kids would treat me less like garbage if I did. Which just goes to show when people say "it's okay to be yourself" they're lying and it's only okay when being yourself is seen as "normal". :x



Aspie1
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08 Nov 2022, 11:17 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
Which just goes to show when people say "it's okay to be yourself" they're lying and it's only okay when being yourself is seen as "normal". :x

Exactly! It's a story as old as time.

"Be true to who you are and be yourself... as long as you're just like the popular people."
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kraftiekortie
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13 Nov 2022, 6:35 am

I’ve found ways to be okay without being popular.



MagicMeerkat
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25 Nov 2022, 1:33 pm

You could use this to teach colors.

"Oh look, China's flag is red and yellow!" "Ethiopia's flag is red, yellow and green". etc. A lot of African countries have a similar flag to Ethiopia. Red, yellow and green. You could use this to teach "same but different".


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