“If children have interests then education happens.”

-Arthur Clarke

My son is obsessed with trucks.  I’m convinced it started when he was an infant and my dad would carry him throughout the house to show him ceiling fans when he would whimper and cry.  He was entranced and the cries subsided but when they ramped up again the solution was the same, leading to a lot of fan staring.  Fans morphed into wheels which turned into anything that moves that’s big, loud, and supposed to get dirty.  

His excitement for these vehicles is unrivaled by anything else.  The nearby firehouse was our nightly walking stop (with plenty of those red plastic fire hats to prove it).  Bedtime stories always include a book involving trucks.  His potty is in the form of (some sort of) truck.  And his room is decked out to the point where we can say, “Alright, time to go to bed in the ‘struction zone,” and he eagerly heads upstairs.  (I made a list of the 36 best toy-based toys, sheets, clothes, etc. here.)

My parents tell me that I had a similar obsession to the point where I was always reading about books and flipping my bike upside down just to spin the wheels for way too long.  But I turned out okay…..right?

Is my son’s obsession with trucks normal? Why do kids have obsessions? When will it fade and what, as a parent, should I do about it? Let’s dive in.

Obsession statistics

The research on these childhood obsessions (yup, it’s a thing) comes to some pretty agreed-upon findings.  The literature refers to these obsessions as “extremely intense interests” (“EII”), but for the purpose of this article, I’ll just refer to them as obsessions.

• About 33% of kids 6 years old and younger have an obsession.

• The average age of the emergence of an obsession is 18 months but it can start as young as 3 months.

• Of those kids who have an obsession, 75% are boys. 

• About 22% of parents can pinpoint exactly when their child’s obsession began.

• About 20% of these obsessions turned into long-term interests.  

• The average obsession lasts ~22 months (regardless of when it started).

• The overall interest level in the obsession decreases at 6 years old, as they enter first grade.

(source 1, 2, 3, 4) 

The top things kids obsess about

Boys

1. Vehicles

2. 3-way tie: Trains, machines, balls

3. 2-way tie: Miscellaneous (e.g. tools, puzzles) and idiosyncratic (e.g. pouring liquids, U.S. Presidents)

4. Dinosaurs
   

Girls

1. Dress up

2. Books/Reading

3. Idiosyncratic (e.g. Blue Angels, U.S. Presidents)

Why boys have more obsessions than girls

No one knows exactly why boys tend to have obsessions more than girls do.  One of the front-running theories sounds more like a lazy explanation.  Boys simply have a stronger general interest in “conceptual interest objects” (e.g. dinosaurs, bug collecting kits, models) as compared to girls who “consider such objects to be less desirable as a result of such marketing and may spend considerably less time” interacting with them.

Another theory is that boys tend to have a more overriding interest in specific things in the younger years, a phenomenon that’s been shown to persist through adulthood.  And finally, another reason for the stronger link of obsessions in boys could be from influential sources such as parents, peers, or advertisements.    

Why do kids have obsessions?

During the first 2 years of life, children are in the first stage of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage.  Here, they acquire knowledge about the world through movement and sensations, they learn about object permanence, and they recognize that their actions have effects on the world around them.  Through these first 700-ish days, kids’ brains are growing at an incredible rate (there are a million new neural connections formed every second in the first few years of life) so their brains are constantly and subconsciously seeking optimal ways to wire neurons together to mature.  

From ages 2-7, they’re in the second stage of cognitive development: the preoperational stage.  Here, they learn to think abstractly, develop language and thinking skills (which are still mostly concrete), and have an egocentric viewpoint (struggling with the theory of mind to understand why Danny won’t share).  Pretend and imaginary play (peaking around 3-5 years old)  is more advanced although the world is still seen in concrete terms.  Dressing up, Legos, and dinosaurs are all ways to bridge the gap of the concrete world and very familiar interests with the world of pretend play.  

Kids develop through interactions with the environment in the form of play.  This occupation of play engages an incredible amount of social, physical, and cognitive components that go beyond our five senses.  For both the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage, play is critical for development.  Play and interaction through an intense area of interest–an obsession–is the perfect incendiary to efficiently and optimally wire neurons together and develop these skills.  

Why are obsessions beneficial?

If the evolutionary role of the brain, at these young stages, is to learn and grow through a combination of stronger and more numerous neural connections then using a very familiar tool of interest, such as trucks, provides an effective and rewarding way for children to foster this development of age-appropriate knowledge and skills.  

Obsessions stimulate these sensory-seeking neurons of the brain because of the commonalities of the interest.  They have variety, novelty, countless combinations for engagement, and provide an opportunity for deeper and deeper knowledge.  For example, trucks come in an assortment of shapes, colors, sizes, and types.  They perform specific tasks, they’re loud, and the more you learn about them the more you can use those struts to learn even more about them.  The same argument can be made for any of the themes of obsessions above. 

Skills that obsessions improve

In one study on kids and their obsession with dinosaurs, they demonstrated an improved ability to explain cause and effect, reason, use inductive logic, and perform next-level sorting.  Further research shows that obsessions improve attention, persistence, and general knowledge.

These obsessions are avenues to better problem-solving, social engagement, creativity, and sensorimotor skills.  Obsessions prompt kids to ask questions, deepen their knowledge, and become better-than-average learners.  

Here are some skills that obsessions can help to improve.

• Hand-eye coordination

• Fine motor coordination 

• Gross motor coordination 

• Cause and effect 

• Social interaction

• Perceptual skills 

• General movement 

• Problem-solving

• Spatial awareness 

• Organization 

• Attention span 

• Information-processing skills 

• Task Completion

• Planning

• Crossing midline

• Vestibular processing

• Visual processing skills

• Visual-motor skills

(source)

How parents can use obsessions to their full potential

As an occupational therapist, I am constantly looking to engage clients in anything of personal interest. It's well known that doing things you enjoy leads to better participation, better results depending on the goal of the task, and just more enjoyment during the task itself. Obsessions are like the extreme version of this. 

As a parent, you don't need to constantly be looking for things that your kid can be engaged in on a week-by-week or hour-by-hour basis. You can take full advantage of this interest and use it as a catalyst to develop skills in a wide variety of areas.

From a pediatric standpoint, these skills are essential to the building blocks of their next developmental milestone. Learning spatial awareness skills helps your child put on their shirt. Improving fine motor coordination improves feeding skills, and better gross motor skills mean better performance in sports.  In OT talk, obsessions like trucks are a way to challenge activity demands and performance skills to improve areas of occupation such as ADL (activities of daily living), IADL (instrumental activities of daily living), and play.

Ideas for improving behavioral, physical, and cognitive skills with obsessions

Obsessions can be used as the theme of a cognitive task such as cause-and-effect, shape and color identification, and problem-solving skills as well as skills like counting, drawing, and spelling.  For example, at a basic level we used trucks to teach my son cause and effect (pull friction wheel car back and it goes forward).  Then we progressed to using trucks to teach him how to count the wheels, number of trucks, etc.), identify colors, and sequence the tasks of a demolition zone (wrecking ball → separate and organize → take away).  We adjusted the task for developmentally appropriate skills (called “grading”) by increasing or decreasing the difficulty.

Obsession can be used to improve behaviors such as social interactions, sharing, and emotional regulation.  For example, we use trucks as a way to role-play different situations.  If the cement mixer is being mean to the dump truck then the dump truck is sad, takes a few long breaths, and comes up with a strategy to manage her frustration tolerance.  

And of course, obsessions can improve physically-based tasks as well such as fine and gross motor planning, strength, balance, and proprioception.  For example, trucks can improve simple but important visual skills like pursuits (where the eyes smoothly follow a target) and fine motor coordination.  It can improve higher-level skills like body awareness. Balance, and reaction speeds through interactions with larger trucks.

You don't need a checklist to make sure that your kid is developing an age-appropriate level for all of these skills but it is important to vary the skills required in the obsession as much as possible. For example, if your kid is obsessed with vehicles you wouldn't just buy them a thousand matchbox cars. Expand their ability to engage and interact with these areas of interest through books, taking them to museums, different sizes of vehicles, etc.  Use the right dose of scaffolding (discussed here) to amplify this effect.

Many of these examples might seem overly basic but they’re all critical parts of the developmental process.  A deficit in any one area could lead to developmental delays in basic life skills and without the building block of one skill the child is less likely to thrive in the age-appropriate life skill that follows that one.  Many adults lack these skills which is the reason you might hear “I never had the coordination for that” or “I was always bad at my lefts and my rights'' or “my attention was never good” as a way to pardon their skill in an area.  It’s only in recent years that these deficits have come to the forefront of childhood care.  (As a side note, if you notice a concerning issue in any one of these areas then get a referral to an OT to further assess it.)

A window into their personalities 

Kids will use their obsession in different ways that align with their personalities.  For sensory seekers, there will be plenty of crashing and dinosaur stomping.  For the sensory defensive there will be more care with tags and textures in buttons with dress-up.  The organized might prefer lining up their toys at first and then advancing to this by color and size.  The creative might build enormous, imaginative cities out of Legos. 

I’ve learned so much from my son through our conversations with trucks and through his reactions and excitement with them (especially cranes lately). 

These intense interests can provide a window into the emerging personalities and preferences of kids.  It allows us to see what excites them and makes them unique.  For the rest of their life, you’ll fondly remember, “my son/daughter used to be obsessed with ____.”  Take advantage of this short period of time so that you have a slightly bigger smile every time you say that over the next decades.

Obsessions Involving Electronics

It’s no surprise that kids can have an obsession with screens (tablets, phones, TVs, etc.) but it’s important to note that this obsession doesn’t have a net positive benefit.  As adults become increasingly addicted to screens and as screens and electronics become more ubiquitous, it’s no doubt that there will be a growing propensity for kids to have more and more screen use year over year. While electronics have their place and time in helping to develop skills, there can be too much of a good thing.  

Since electronics are a “mismatch” of the environment, meaning our brains and bodies didn’t evolve to thrive with them, they can actually cause more harm than good. Screens preclude kids from learning in the way kids have evolved to learn best.  Some of the biggest disadvantages are not necessarily what a screen does to kids but what it limits.  Screen use can inhibit basic developmental skills such as emotional regulation, eye contact, perception, visual motor abilities, neuromuscular skills, and the capacity to process sensory information.

There are times when the use of a screen can be helpful in promoting some skills when for the vast majority of situations, promote non-screen play over screen use (more to come in a future post).  

Takeaway

About 33% of kids will have an obsession (called “intense area of interest” in the research.  They’re more common in boys (vehicles are most common) than girls (dress-up wins), they last about 22 months, and they fade by first grade.  

Not only is it not a concern if your kid has an obsession but it’s an advantage for social, cognitive, and physical development.  Given the engagement, familiarity, and complexity of the theme of the interset (such as trucks), kids can learn to improve their rapidly developing brains by playing with the interest in a variety of ways.  It can help to improve skills like attention, problem-solving, fine- and gross-motor coordination, spatial awareness, and it even deepens knowledge.  Parents and caregivers can use the obsession as a way to further develop a child’s development.  

Go ahead and embrace your child’s passion. 🛻 🚛 🚒