Can't figure it out?

My friend lost his wife right before their son's third birthday.  The child is almost nine now.  As a pre-shooler he would not interact normally with children his own age except his cousins and did wierd things like wonder around the house by himself and lay on beds staring at ceiling fans. He insists on sleeping with his father, plays only with young children, won't participate in sports or at bithday parties, parallell plays when peers are interacting and starts crying with hysterics when we go to places like an amuzement park or when asked to participate in a sport.  He has crying jags wen he doesn't get his own way at least a few times a week. When I am engaging his father in conversation, he will always come into the room and do physical kung fu type stunts that he has seen on Power Rangers (which he is obsessed with) and waits for his father to praise him on his moves. He constantly says lines from movies. When he thinks things won't go the way he has planned, he will begin to maniulate is father who is becoming more and more frustrated with his son's lack of self-assurance.
Please, for the love of God, can you tell me what is going on with this poor young boy?

[RockRose]

God help the motherless child.    I don't know how my three sons would have turned out,  individually,  if I died when they were 2 and they had no mother to,  well,  "mother" them.  

Are you his father's girlfriend?    You probably see the very worst of him,  because when you are there he feels the most threatened.

[jd1419]

Here is an opinion--the first thing dad may need to do is have him evaluated to see if he has any special needs.  If not he may just be a child who has a different nature than others.  I can't imagine what these two guys have had to go through with the loss of a loved one.  The boy may just need different challenges that he is good at.  If you are the girlfriend and do spend a lot of time over at their house--are you finding it difficult to totally interact with the child--if not try and do things that you know that he enjoys and stick to them. He may surpirse you and become less fixated on the Power Rangers-- or if that is what he really enjoys see if his dad can enroll him in Tae Kwan Doe to help him progress further in those moves.  I hear these classes really teach discipline(to the fact of studying the moves and learining) and that they are a great form of exercise and a sport he can compete in.