3 yr old spinning objects

My son is 3 yr and 10 mo. He is bright, very imaginative, affectionate, responsive to others moods/emotions, and goes out of his way to connect, interact with people when we are out. His verbal skills are great. He asks great questions and processes the answer.

My concern is that he spins objects like pencils and flips objects like cd cases pretty much all day. He usually watches the objects unless otherwise engaged. The spinning is always part of imagination play, such as weed eater, mowing grass, police car, and he will change up to fit something going on in his environement such as washing dishes, spraying plants with mister, cooking. He loves for us to join in his imagination play but he continues to spin.
It start around 2 1/2 drumming, everyone said he's going to be a drummer. That gave way to flipping shoestrings and making noises with mouth  then to spinning, flipping objects.
He isn't much on toys,will play with them for awhile then goes back to spinning and imagining. You can easily talk to him, he will stop making noises with his mouth and listen to you but keep spiining with his hand.
He does pretty well in church nursery setting that is structured. He will stop spinning all together if there is something to do that involves a lot of his senses.
I have been concerned about autism. Pediatrician says definatley not autism but not sure why he does this. She thinks he is possibly highly imaginative, bright. Would appreciate your thoughts.
  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Your pediatrician is certainly correct in advising you that your son does not display Autustic Disorder. We have to be careful about attributing too much importance to a single symptom or behavior, in your case the spinning behavior. This needn't be representative of any problem at all. Taken together with an array of other symptoms, it can indicate problems, but this does not seem to be the case with your son. I offer this by way of reassurance. Your information indicates that your son, overall, is developing well. How to explain the spinning? My sesne is that this behavior does not represent any emotional disorder. Rather, I would lean toward thinking that, if the behavior is indicative of anything, it might well be more along the line of a sensory issue. Perhaps having your son observed or evaluated by an Occupational Therapist would be prudent. See what such a clinician might offer and proceed from there. But overall there is no suggestion that this behavior is a serious problem.

[kendo62]

A related discussion, asperger/autism was started.