Aidan’s love of cars, trains, and automobiles, started at a very young age. He was absolutely obsessed with Hot Wheels, and every time we did a shop at Checkers, we’d stop by the revolving stand of them to buy him one. We had a little tradition of opening them while we waited to pay, and he’d chill in our arms or in his pram, just spinning their wheels over and over.
He was so captivated by spinning wheels, that no matter what kind of toy car we bought him, that’s what he always did first. He would sit for ages, just spinning wheels, and we wondered if he knew he could push them along the ground. Whenever we’d intervene to show him, he would become annoyed and revert back to spinning. We realised that this was how he wanted to play with this particular toy and let him have at it. In fact, I found it super cute and took lots of videos of it! I didn’t know then what I do now, which is that spinning wheels instead of driving cars along the ground, furniture, or walls in a typical way, is a classic indicator of autism. And sometimes it makes me sad to think that something so sweet and quirky, is an official box, on an official document, as part of an official diagnosis.
When Aidan was little he struggled with transitions. Sometimes, he still does. It depends on his mood and definitely on whether he’s in full health, or under the weather. We managed them with a device, his favourite snacks, and a go-bag of Hot Wheel cars. His favourite colour was red so all the cars were red! We made sure to only let him access his go-bag when he was out of sorts trying to settle into a new place, and that handful of little red cars really made such a huge difference!
Aidan will still spin the wheels of cars and trains today, particularly if it’s a new toy. But he’s also learned to drive them along every available surface – just like a typical child would. He’s also obsessed with full-size cars and can spend a happy hour behind the wheel of our Audi making “vroom-vroom” noises, or simply watching cars pull in and out of car parks. Even when he’s at the park, he’ll always run to the fence closest to the road to watch lines of traffic inching forwards. No matter what he’s doing, he’ll always stop to watch a vehicle go by! Cars make him so happy. And when Aidan’s happy, so are we!
