Why Do Toddlers Line Up Their Toys?

Another post about strange toddler behaviour...

We've talked about how why children like to carry heavy things or become obsessed with tiny objects.  

This time we're talking about their need to line up toys (cars, stuffed animals, etc).

First, why they do this (and why it's important to support this behaviour)...

Why do children like to line up their toys?

There are several developmental reasons why toddlers like to line up their toys:

1. Sensitive Period for Order - from approximately 6 months to 3 years, children are in a sensitive period for order. Lining up their toys is a way of creating order, which in turn gives children a sense of control, predictability, and comfort.

This may not make sense when we think of play, which is often thought of as being disorderly, but young children look for and create order where they can.

2. Gives Them More Information - Children are naturally curious and want to take in as much of their surroundings (and toys) as possible.

With all their toys lined up, they can see every single one of them. This allows them to notice the similarities and differences in their size and colour.

The process of lining them up allows them to touch every toy with their hands, providing important sensory input when doing so.

3. Repetition - Repetition is an important part of learning. Lining up their toys is a repetitive movement, helping them to develop and strengthen their fine motor skills and spatial awareness.

Young children enjoy repetitive activities because they’re satisfying. The child learns that with practice their skills get stronger, and the task becomes easier or gets done faster.

5 Activities for Children Who like Lining up their Toys

If your toddler is in the "lining up toys" phase, here's 5 activities they might like:

1. Line-Up the Animals - put a few strips of painters tape on the floor and add a basket of stuffed animals or animal figurines. You could do this with any toys, it doesn’t need to be stuffed animals. It’s a simple but satisfying activity where you’ve given them a place to create order, i.e. the line of tape.

2. Painters Tape Track - put a few strips of painters tape on the floor and add a basket of vehicles. The child can line up all their vehicles on the "road." You can get creative and turn it into a neighbourhood with houses and shops (using blocks) and the child can drive the cars around, likely staying on the tape the whole time.

3. Colour Sorting Lines - put three strips of painters tape on the floor with a basket of red, blue and yellow blocks or a basket of toys that are all red, blue and yellow (Note that you can choose any colours you like, just make sure you have enough toys in that colour).

Invite your child to sort the blocks/toys by colour. I would also recommend adding the colour somewhere to the tape, either with a marker or piece of coloured paper so the child can understand better that they’re sorting by colour. You can also add more colours as the child grows.

4. Organizing by size - grab some painters tape (again!) and a basket of toys that vary in size. Play with your child and help them to put the animals in order from smallest to largest (or vice versa). This activity is also great for developing vocabulary (bigger/smaller) and learning about size gradation.

5. Include lining up toys in imaginative play and story-telling - when you’re playing with your child, create fun scenarios with the toys that will invite the child to line them up like cars lining up for a race, animals lining up for food, people figurines lining up to walk in a parade, etc.

The activities mentioned above with painters tape could also be done outside with sidewalk chalk.

These activities are fun and relatively easy to set up, which is great for a rainy day!

Just remember that children have a very strong sense of order so they may have their own ideas of how they want to use the lines of painters tape.

Follow their lead and you’ll see how they create order that is meaningful to them.

Is Lining Up Toys a Sign of Autism?

One last note about lining up toys - because teachers often get inquiries about this.

Yes, lining up toys can be an early indicator of Autism but it's also a very common behaviour in children that don't have ASD.

A noticeable difference is that children on the spectrum tend to have very specific routines around lining up toys, i.e. they line up their toys in the exact same order every single time, whereas other children would mix up the order, move them around, or not line them up sometimes.

If you're concerned about this behaviour talk to your child's teacher and doctor.