My child is scared to sit on any ride, toy trains, toy cars/ tricycles etc

[moumitah]

Hello SIr/ Madam,

My almost 3yr (34 month) old son is afraid to sit on his tricycle. His grand parents gifted him one on his 2nd birthday and from that time he didnt sit on it once also. When ever i encourage him or force him a little to sit on it he starts crying. He will push it around but wont sit on it.
The strange part is that he loves vehicles, all sorts, train / cars / aeroplanes / diggers / mixers etc, he has loads of them, he will push them around through out the house.
He is going to a whole day school / daycare 5 days a week for and he had very very tough time adjusting there, he took 3 months, constantly crying / throwing up initially (and we did phase in to school very gradually like starting 1 hr a day but then also where other kids take 2 to 3 weeks he took 3 months) . Now he enjoys school.

In his school there are many car / trucks which you can ride, but he never gets into them, but he will push it around, and he sees all his friends getting into it and riding it but even asking him to get into them will result in severe crying.
He will not go in any ride ( eg : he loves thomas engine and on the way to his school there is this thomas engine which you can ride if you pop in a coin) he is seeing it every day for a year now, he enjoys seeing other kids riding it, but he will never sit on it, but run around it very excited , showing me its wheels, buffer, couplers etc
He will not sit on a seesaw or a swing. He sometimes after lots of encouragement goes in a slide, that too if his father takes him up the stairs of the slide.

He loves aeroplanes, but once we went to a vehicle museum and there we went inside a plane , he was screaming to go out.
Once we went to TOYs R US and there for the first time I saw him sitting in a small red car and driving it, so immediately we bought that car. But now he wont sit in it but just push it around and even if I request him to sit on it he will start crying.

Is this behavious very abnormal ans is it linked to autism? I see all kids of his age riding these and enjoying, I feel very bad for him.

I would also like to mention he is a very active kid , always talking (he started talking very early single words from the age of 4/5 months ) and now speakes one indian language fluently just like an adult, he speaks english pretty well and little bit of german.
When we get in a train/ bus, he goes and talk to any stranges by himself. I can do pretty long conversations with him, like what he did in school etc.
He can count till 1 to 20, knows his A-Z and almost all colours, many rhymes and totally toilet trained.
But he normally lines up all his cars one after the other (i read in a site that this is an autism symptom)

On his 2 yr old check up in switzerland, he came out with flying colous and the doc said that never in her life she has seen such a child who speaks so fluently and knows so many colours and rhymes etc etc...

Please help me. Should I get him checked for autism.

[moumitah]

Thanka a lot for your reply.
Actually my husband never pushes him and also advises me to let him grow at his own pace.
But I actually see all his friends riding these cars / swings and always felt bad that he is not enjoying, but yes he definately enjoys in his own way....So i started searching the internet today and there I found one reply to a simillar post suggesting autism, so I got so tensed .
Thanks a lot for your reply again.. i am at peace again and determined not to push him :-)))

[jdtm]

Should you get him checked for autism?  Probably not.  Your child sounds normal to me although I wonder if the parents (you and perhaps your husband) are a bit too intense in your parenting.  Children do not mature equally in all aspects - verbal, numerical, social, academic, athletic, etc.  Some children speak early, some children walk early, some children empathize early, some children infer early, etc.  It appears your child is advanced in verbal and academic but less so in some of the other aspects as social and athletic.  This is normal - I do not know of any child who is  advanced in all categories or any adult who is gifted in all aspects of human development.  This is as it should be.

By the way, our son developed very similarly to yours - advanced verbally and academically and able to empathize at a very early age, but was a bit slower socially (although this actually was one of his strengths in his teen years) and definitely a non-athlete (although he loved sports).  He also never rode his toys but preferred to push them - I guess he found them too "dangerous" to sit on.  By the way, he had no trouble riding a motor bike when he was older - wished the "dangerous" aspect had lasted longer.

He seems quite young for a full week daycare but if one has no other options, then so be it.  I know our son would not have been able to cope with full-day daycare at three years of age.  Perhaps the best advice I can give you is to "relax" and enjoy your little boy - they grow so fast.  I wish you the best ...