On the playground the child may run around a lot but does not organize his activity to climb, swing, or explore equipment. The child does not move around or explore the environment. This child may be content to watch things in his environment although he is physically able to move around and interact. The older child may use good verbal skills to engage the adult in conversation as a way of avoiding manipulating with his hands or actively engaging in activity. The child lacks variety in play activities.
Some children become very repetitive or stereotypic in playing with toys.
Everything may be flung aside, tapped on a surface, or brought to the mouth. Other children may learn one way to interact with a toy or playground equipment without adding variations, creative play, or generalizing to other similar objects. For example, the child may line up toy cars but does not pretend they are going places or experiment with rolling them down an incline. The child appears clumsy, trips easily, has poor balance. The child may experience an excessive number of bumps, bruises, stitches, or broken bones.