Had a young visitor this weekend with Asperger's Syndrome. The O gauge trains got him literally very excited. He stood on the balls of his feet and kept bouncing up and down while waving his arms. At first the whole layout was overwhelming and the noise of the trains on the Fastrack put him off. But as he got used to it he fixated on a particular crossing gate, then a crane car, then a group of people, then blowing the whistles. Mostly he liked moving things. I let him control the speed and reverse the trains and he was very good. His attention was intense and constant. I had a student in my class once, different kid now, (junior high) with autism and he, characteristically, connected very little with me or any of his fellow students. But when he saw a train magazine on my desk one day he began stopping every day before class to ask me a question related specifically to the running of these model trains. He was very bright.
Getting back to my visitor and train buddy, I finally conceded to let him take some sections of older Lionel 3 rail track and a few cars down to the living room floor to couple the cars and roll them back and forth a bit. After about 1/2 a day he tired of that and completely abandoned interest in favor of watching the lights of a railroad crossing warning light. In the end, he seemed to really enjoy himself, his parents were delighted at his interest and nothing got damaged.
Makes me wonder if these train we collect and run might not some times be good therapy.
Thank you
