Raiding the Recycle Bin

One thing we do in our house to limit the amout of times we must go to throw something in our recycling bin (which is outside on the far side of the house due to HOA rules) was to make one for in our house that is just a plain old cardboard box. It has worked wonderfully so we don't have to run out there every few hours to put something in.
I was quite surprised one day to find my 6 yr old had raided the recycle bin. He had gotten out tape, glue, markers... and you know the rest working on some brilliant creation. The amazing thing I have realized when I watch him do this is he ends up typically creating an object that fill his sensory needs. For instance, if he's craving noise he finds things that make noise such as tin cans and pencils. If he's craving slime most likely he'll get into the glue or paint and so forth. I didn't notice this until today. Seeing he is an undiagnosed high functioning autistic* it is very good to see him use his imagination that is not based off of a movie of some sort.
It's amazing what he can come up with but also that he is finding out how to create things to fill his sensory needs without knowing it. It takes me a while to realize he's doing this sometimes because I have to focus on the object he got, what he's doing with it, and how he is using it. It's quite cool to see his imagination soar with a bunch of recycled products.

*I used the term undiagnosed high functioning autistic because his neurologist finally told me that he has too many characteristics to not be on the spectrum somewhere. We have also tried lots of medications and so forth to control various behaviors but it hasn't worked out well and I eventually gave up. I'll need to actually contact his neurologist again here soon.