Someone was kind enough to have sent me a really interesting and kind of amazing theory on this photo of my son Quinn - a pic that showed early on how his mind worked a little differently (eventually diagnosed as autism):

Here’s part of her note (actually sent to me as a comment on this site):
My primary research interest is autism and so I had of course seen the pictures you uploaded of Quinn onto the Wikipedia article on autism. I had first seen the “ducks in a row” picture a while ago and felt that there was something interesting going on with the spacing of the ducks in that line of toys. When I drew the pattern out, assigning shapes to the types of toys he had, it blew me away when I realized that Quinn, at two years old, had created a Fibonacci sequence with the ducks (I first learned of this sequence in my senior year of high school). A Fibonacci sequence is 0 1 1 2 3 5 8…continuing infinitely. It’s the pattern that’s found all over nature, in sunflower heads, pinecones, nautilus shells, etc. Furthermore, Quinn lined the toys up in a way that the “non-duck spacers” represent the previous number of ducks multiplied by themselves. So in order: 1 duck (x1) = 2 spacers (clock and teletubby), 1 duck (x1) = 2 spacers (2 shoes), 2 ducks (x2) = 4 spacers (frog, pig, cow, cow). Finally, if he has two of kind for the spacers, he puts them together. Although I have read of talents with prime numbers in autism, I have never come across anything with the Fibonacci sequence. I’m at the beginning of my studies, so I don’t have any concrete recommendations, but a fellow researcher I study with thought this was remarkable as well.
This is something I had never noticed before, but it wouldn’t be impossible to believe. (I will need to look over some of his other sets of lined-up toys and his artwork.)
What do you think?
I just found another photo of Quinn doing pretty much the same thing with the ducks on a different day (but around the same age).

I wish I could find the original of this so I could see the ducks a little more closely! The 4 ducks should be 5, but maybe (lacking another yellow quacker) he put the green thing as a duck? I certainly don’t know all the ways his lovely mind works, but there’s definitely a pattern here…
What's next? Always something! And hopefully this will be more than your everyday ol' blog. For starters, there's my band and musician memorabilia (especially cool if you love 80s music).
REBECCA sCHAEFER
November 26th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Over the last 4 months, I have learned alot about both your son Quinn and Autism. and I have decided that when I graduate in 2012, I want to be a teacher for students just like your son Quinn he has taught me so much at school.
DAWN
January 8th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I read a lot about ADHD, Autism, AS…. ran across your youtube video about Quinn. I have found something that has helped my ADHD-OCD-AS son. I found it through several friends with that have Autistic children. Their kids were non verbal. Ones kid is an Autistic Non-verbal teenager who spoke his first words “Momma I love you” after taking this amazing product for several months. It has changed lives! I can’t imagine if someone had not shared it with my family. Email me back if you are interested to hear more.
One Mom to Another
Offering Hope.
Nyx
February 19th, 2010 at 8:10 am
I find this interesting, but I can’t seem to quite catch on to the pattern the poster suggested. I notice that the poster says a couple of times that 1 X 1 = 2, but of course 1 X 1 = 1, so that confused me a little too. this is interesting though. I’ve never heard of a Fibonacci sequence, but maybe I will see if I can figure it out!