Kids with Vacuum cleaner obsessions, cool!

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Here are two Kids with Vacuum cleaner obsessions, who don't have Asperger's. Is it possible?

The first chap is 12 year old Kyle Krichbaum, who has a vacuum cleaner obsession. He was seen on CBS News last Friday. Well he seem social enough, his manerisms don't look too Aspie to me.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/ ... 5219.shtml

However, 5 year old Aden Atkins seems a more Aspie then Kyle, note that Aden spins a bit. In any case, neither has Asperger's - at least AS is not mentioned in the TV interviews. I wonder it is is possible in this day and age to not know about Asperger's?

It is also curious to see how similar Murry and Kyle's interests are. Cool hobby btw.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvk5eoz_PrE[/youtube]

I am not a diagnostician, but that's an Aspie! Outgoing, yes, but Aspie. I love the kid and the vacuum collection. I would buy a vacuum for him. Notice how his vacuums are lined up in order? He vacuums everyday too. Cool vacuum Aspie!

They avoided a diagnosis because their hobbies are so useful!

My mother would have loved to have seen my astronomy/mineralogy hobby swapped for a vacuum cleaner obsession, the house would have been spotless. Instead, I bring grass in from the back garden after I use my telescope and I leave rocks and minerals scattered around the house.

the 12 year old definitely isn't quite NT, the 5 year old I dunno about...

i know a kid with this obcession in the township i live in, his name is ben (dont know his last) i doscovered this when i was helping my dad clean up my grandmother's house after she died and we took alot of stuff to the curb then this kid was riding around on his bike and then he looks up a thouse and notices the dirt devil surpreme (red upright with bag filters) on the back porch. so what does the 6 year old do?? thats right, asked me and my dad if he can have it and add it to his collection when we are done with it!! ! wetold him no we are sorry we dont have one to donate to him then the kid then started to obcess about his current collection of vacuums, he said he had alot that were from 60's and many were the canister "sled" type

i still sometimes see this kid when we drive in the area of the fire department, is he aspie?? i think so!! kid has to be about 14 or 15 by now and every weekend when it was nice he would (at around 9:00 each morning) open garage door, take out his vacuums line them up on edge of driveway/lawn on both sides and walk up and down in front of his line of "soldiers". i dont know if he says anything or not being that this behavior was only observed a few times since i noticed were he lives . last time i seen him he was looking into the engine of a lawn tractor while sitting in a lawn chair on front lawn.

the year that he would be starting middle school they put in an autism program in the town public school system for middle school (custodians: lock the janitor closets!!) i wonder if this kid was able to take one of his loved super suckers into school when he was younger as a comfort object or show and tell?

i think it would be realyl cool if i had met him in person and had the chnace to communicate with him, i have not found anyone around here who shares interests that are mechanical in nature accept me and him.

Anyway, people on the CBS website are starting to say Kyle has Asperger's. I posted too, I said while I'm nearly certain he has it, he seems mild and he will do well.

But but but, how on Earth do people not know about Asperger's nowadays? A producer and/or interviewer should have known about AS. Also, it is sad that a kid goes on National TV and only then does he find out about AS (or it puts him in the invidious position of hearing people claiming that he has it). Not a good way to find out that you're an Aspie.

I wonder, and I worry if this might develop into a controversy. Especially if someone complains that the TV station has made a child with Asperger's into a curiosity. This could get bad, I'm a pessimist.

I think they are awesome kids! The 12 year old was on David Letterman when he was younger; I remember seeing him.

Anyway, in regards to aspergers, the kids might be diagnosed but their families choose not to expose this on television. Like someone else said, they also have very helpful obsessions! I would love to have a vacuuming child - though maybe not to this extreme. I can't believe how many vacuums the older boy has. I wonder if his parents just gave up on trying to control his collecting?

I can't drive past a vacuum, a weedeater, or a mower that's sitting out curbside on trash day. Been fixing and giving or trading the extras to anyone who needs for years.

My parent gave up on controlling my mineral / rock collecting hobby, we now have a nice rockery around our garden pond. Yes, it is a valuable hobby too.

Also, I read Tony Atwood say that the vacuum cleaner obsession begins from a fear of vacuum cleaners, that the child tried to control their fears by first studying and later collecting the scary vacuum cleaners. I got very interested in thunderstorms for several years, well actually still love thunderstorms but not quite to the degree I used to.

interesting you say that diamonddavej, i can remember having a big fear about solor eclipses then one day in middle school i begged my dad to get me a weldong lens and watched the feb 26th 1998 eclipse and i cant believe that it was soo fast and soo cool,

i just hope i dont forget when next east coast usa solor eclipse is, id sure want to watch with eyes protected. last eclipse here was the xmas day year 2000? that one lasted HOURS!! !

Scary. My son has been scared of vacuums for ages...I've just gotten him to finally try one a few weeks ago...now he wants to use it all the time, and has been bugging me for "his own". Just ordered a part for a little Oreck I have stashed in the basement (found curbside last fall)...planning on letting him help me put it together and let him have it (it's an easy fix ). Hopefully I don't have 150 of these lined up next fall in his room now. Oh well, could always be worse.

Kyle is definitely on the spectrum imho...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E06zge0FrHw[/youtube]

Especially wrt the head tapping at 1:30 (or 0:45 in reverse count).

Congratulations to Kyle for a taste of national spotlight; Steve needs to get a clue about people that seem a little "strange" to him. As for me, I was freaked by vacuums when I was little....I remember having to go outside when my mom cleaned up or did exercises with pulleys or when my dad sharpened knives (hated that sound).

There used to be a series of documentaries broadcast during the late 1980s and early 1990s called the Secret Life of Machines. Each episode featured a different machine and the first was about vacuum cleaners. They were brilliant.

interesting type of show, i think i would love to see the series of documenteries i often wonder was the shows such as secret life of machines or modern marvels (history channel) and some of the discovery channels stuff written or directed by aspies??? reason i figure this is aspies seem to get along well with machines and can become expertes very quickly in the machine in question (for me its door closers) i just did a search on youtube and it seems its the british version of how its made (aired in us and canada)

The series was presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod. They are very smart but quite eccentric people. I'm not sure if they have AS or not.