Need a fascination transition

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My 7 yr old aspie's fascination or obsession is with Thomas the Train and trains. As he is getting older I am trying to think of a more grown up set of trains or away to pull him away from Thomas so that his peers don't start picking on him. I was wandering if there are any parents out there who would have any ideas to help me out? Thanks!

Maybe you could get books on real trains and start to get him interested in those. I am not sure.....wish I could help. My son is stuck on car makes and models.... which I guess a lot of little boys love toy cars, but my son likes real cars and can talk about it constantly. I think Aspies are only able to move on from a special interest when they are ready to.

You don't need to force anything. I would just expose him to lots of different, more age appropriate, things and see if anything sticks. Let him have his trains until he is ready to move on.

This may sound stupid but, you have told him that kids will give him a hard time, right? Don't let him figure that out on his own. Help him with ideas of how he can have something Thomas with him during the day that the kids don't need to know about.

Aside from helping him cope socially, let the interest take care of itself.

I had the opposite problem when my sons moved on from Thomas and trains in general to superheroes at the age of 4-5 and I wasn't ready! I still get really wistful when I see a train go by, after those 3 years of total immersion in their interest!

But I agree completely with what Kailuamom said. Let him know that some kids might perceive Thomas as too young for a 7 yo and might give him a hard time, but also let him know that he is allowed to be his own person and like whatever he likes you are just telling him so he isn't surprised by a negative reaction, and then let him make his own choices regarding his interest.