Lil' Organizer

I recently came across this piece of information which sheds some light on Laura's fascination/obsession with organizing and grouping things. Even though she's very particular about certain things, like where her cup should be placed at mealtimes, it's not like I was worried that she had some sort of problem. 

Actually, it's all quite new and interesting for me because even though she's my second child and has been developing normally (other than the fact that she's a pretty late talker), she is completely different from Alina. Each of them amaze me in different ways.

Q: My toddler is obsessed with organizing things. She's constantly stacking toys and other objects, lining them up in perfect rows, or grouping them by color. Is it possible that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder?


Expert Answer
Penelope Leach, child psychologist

Though your toddler's stacking, grouping, and sorting behavior may strike you as odd, it's actually perfectly normal for a child this age. Indeed, noticing the similarities and differences between objects and learning to group like with like is one of a toddler's most important cognitive tasks. Granted, her fingers' constant sorting, arranging, and grouping activity may seem like a tic, but remember that she must first do this work with her hands before she can do it with her brain.

If you watch your child closely — with pleasure rather than anxiety — you may notice her carefully separating her soft toys from her dolls, putting them into neat rows, and perhaps even dividing them into smaller subcategories (the baby dolls in one row, for instance, and the Barbies in another). If you're lucky, you may even witness her contemplating higher-level dilemmas, such as whether the apple should go with the ball (because they're both round) or with the cookie (because they're both things to eat).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), on the other hand, is debilitating rather than empowering. Instead of using organization to gain an understanding of her world, a child with OCD uses her compulsion to keep the world — and the extreme anxiety and fear that it causes for her — at bay. She may stay in the bathroom for hours and wash her hands until they're raw, for instance, or not be able to leave the house until she's completed a complex series of rituals. These obsessions and compulsions tend to get in the way of social interactions, interfere with normal activities, and are often accompanied by sleep problems, depression, and quirky eating habits.

The behavior your child is exhibiting is not OCD but the sign of a normal — and completely healthy — cognitive advance.