Ever wonder why many children become obsessed with garbage trucks? I mean Garbage trucks? Or cement mixers, or dump truck? Fire trucks I get, flashy sirens and bright red colours but Garbage trucks?
As with most child development phenomena these days there are a lot of academic studies on the topic of child obsession with certain things and types of toys such that now it even has a name and a three-letter acronym. It is called Extremely Intense Interests" (EIIs), or sometimes just intense interests and maybe the latter is better because all the research and expert opinion seems to suggest that this is entirely normal and actually a good thing for brain development, so not really extreme at all. Evidence suggests that this phenomenon emerges around 18 months old and in around one third of pre-school aged children. Additionally, the obsession revolves around vehicles in the majority of cases, regardless of whether it is boys or girls, although it can run to other things such as dinosaurs. At Little Wriggler we have created a number of videos that show case a variety of vehicles that little ones often find irresistible. These will serve to both satisfy their obsessions and fuel their learning about the vehicles in question and related vehicles.
So why vehicles? The researchers have views on that too. Apparently, it is all to do with the stage of brain development and a simple fact, which all parents know, that kids are attracted to loud flashy things. Up until about age 2, children are in the “sensorimotor” stage of development, they learn by absorbing everything through their 5 senses. Toys and real-life objects like cars are very sensorily engaging. They often travel in cars, buses and trains, see vehicles while out and about and toy vehicles are easy to play with and carry from place to place. Also playing with wheeled vehicles teaches cause and effect relationships in that the child learns that if they push the vehicle, they move it. This evolves into scenario creation that fuels imagination. But perhaps beware of toys with too many built in features, how often have you found that kids discard flashy toys and play with the box instead? It seems they get bored with toys that do too much for them and prefer those that require their intervention and imagination.
The obsession stage seems to extend to wanting to make the noises themselves and have control of what the vehicle does and even is. Our son regularly changes the specified nature of vehicles to declare them to be something entirely different. This is to be encouraged and is easier when the toys have less built-in functionality. So consider simple toys but with elements that promote creation of scenarios such as wooden trainsets and road networks. LittleWriggler has a number of videos utilising these kinds of toys in out playtime playlist (see also our blog post on the importance of playtime).
Little Wriggler - Toys, Puzzles & Games playlist
So is this intense interest obsession a good thing? Some research suggests that it is an indicator of intelligence and/or promotes intelligence development. Well let’s park that as there are many manifestations of intelligence so a lack of EII does not mean a child is not intelligent or less intelligent, but at least we can conclude from this research that it is not a bad thing. EIIs have been found to boost confidence, improve cognitive development, improve attention span and result in better information processing abilities. Simply put, children with EIIs tend to more actively seek information on their obsessions and are constantly asking that why question, which seems to be at the root of why they may become better learners. And this level of engagement with parents or carers is also beneficial for linguistic development due to the higher level of discussion engagement. Moreover, this early development behaviour plays into learning strategies and problem solving in formal education settings later on. This resonates with the UNESCO research findings in terms of the use of discussion sessions in formal teaching settings (see our blog series on this topic for more details). And when they are on the younger end of the obsession you can also leverage this to improve their fine motor skills and vocabulary comprehension by introducing games and puzzles that are themed around the obsession. In our own case this was vehicles so we got a number of vehicle-based jigsaws, which saw much action...
So what should we make of these obsessions? Well, they tend not to last beyond aged 3, although the interest can last longer in some children but the obsession phase wanes as other demands on time emerge, such as school work and friendships. The subject of obsession can be rather peculiar, police cars and fire trucks are obvious but very often things like garbage trucks and excavators are chosen. The general advice is that these intense interests are to be encouraged, or at least not discouraged and should be supported and definitely NOT disparaged and they are certainly nothing to be concerned about.
Comments