About 50 new types of dinosaurs are discovered every year, adding to over 1000 cataloged pre-historic creatures. We’re constantly learning new things about ancient and extinct creatures and as a result, dinosaurs hold a special place in our collective imagination. Here at Alzein Pediatrics, we’ve met many children who absolutely love dinosaurs. We’ve also met many preschoolers who can identify nearly any kind of vehicle, be it a car, bus or train. There are also kids that give us amazing new facts about butterflies. We love learning from our patients!
This overwhelming interest in dinosaurs or cars or a specific type of animal – or nearly any one niche topic – occurs across generations, timeless examples of the relatively common experience of a childhood “intense interest.” While everyone has interests, psychologists use “intense interest” to describe relationships with objects or topics that are personally meaningful and that come to dominate a child’s attention.
While an intense interest can seem all-consuming, perhaps causing parents some concern, the development of intense interests is relatively common. About one-third of children between 2-6 years of age develop an intense interest. Boys are six times more likely to develop an intense interest than girls, and those interests tend to be most commonly dinosaurs, planes, horses, and trains. While some interests originate from an identifiable encounter with the topic, such as a favorite dinosaur book, a train trip, or seeing a caterpillar create a chrysalis, a great many intense interests arise spontaneously.
Young children are particularly susceptible to intense interests because the topics provide volumes of information that can be categorized and sorted by characteristics that are easy enough for a child to identify and differentiate. Psychologists believe intense interests help children develop:
- increased knowledge and persistence
- a better attention span
- deeper information-processing skills
While the research remains inconclusive on the long-term intellectual benefits of intense interest, there is evidence of a positive relationship between intense interests and self-confidence.
While under the thrall of an intense interest, your child may talk about nothing but dinosaurs, which may worry parents that other learning opportunities are being ignored. The good news is that intense interests typically only last between 6 months and 3 years. Psychologists suspect must of the decline in intensity comes from the increased mix of socialization and education children experience around kindergarten. When it’s time to learn the alphabet, teachers expect children to focus on A-B-C rather than Aeolosaurus, Brachyceratops and Corythosaurus; kids quickly learn which one topic is more socially acceptable in the school setting. As children reach age 6, these intense interests tend to exhaust themselves.
In some cases, though, the intense interest may come to seem more like a compulsion or obsession. While having an intense interest can be a symptom of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), in almost all cases, children with ASD also present other symptoms, such as avoiding eye contact or repetitive behavior. Typically, the kinds of conceptual or object interests in kids with ASD tend to be clinically peculiar, unusual, uncommon, or inappropriate.
The vast majority of intense interest phases are just one common path of human cognitive development.
When your child shows signs of an intense interests, we recommend you ensure the interest is appropriate and then get on board while letting your child drive the proverbial bus (however much they’d like to drive a real one). Controlling the interest is part of the charm of learning for your child, and giving them the freedom to explore is vital to nurturing an interest. Most intense interests also benefit from a clear educational emphasis and a consistent conceptual structure.
The Chicagoland area is a fantastic place to nurture your child’s intense interest as it’s so rich in cultural and educational opportunities for children. Take your child to the Field Museum to view the dinosaur fossils, tour the railfan sites in the Chicagoland area, learn how nearly any kind of vehicle or machine works at the Museum of Science & Industry, or take a walk through the Judy Istock Butterfly Haven at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum – just for a start.
Intense interests are best fostered when your child’s interests are prioritized and talked about freely. Engaging in that discussion provides your child with vital positive feedback that it’s interesting to have interests – and you could very well be building a bond of shared interest with your child that will last a lifetime.
Have questions about your child’s intense interest? Just message your Alzein Pediatrics provider through your portal. We will be happy to help!
