Autistic nine-year-old boy obsessed with cars designs his own 30mph sign

An adorable nine-year-old road sign obsessive was left overjoyed when he was invited to spend the day at a sign shop - and even bagged himself his own custom-made sign.
Theo Goodwin, who was diagnosed with autism when he was three-years-old, was left thrilled when he was approached to take a tour of a sign factory in Nuneaton on Thursday (24/2). He was asked to come along after midlands-based Nuneaton Signs spotted the street sign obsessive on his TikTok page. His TikTok page, which is run by dad, Carl Goodwin, 35, has over 60,000 followers and highlights Theo's other interest which include trainspotting and reading stories. Theo, who can remember every road sign from his home in Rhondda to Cardiff, was thrilled to see how the signs were made in a behind-the scenes tour. He even bagged himself a 'Theo 30' as well as light up sign and his very own named parking bay on arrival. The adorable clip of Theo's big day has now been viewed more than 11,000 times. Dad Carl a marketing manager from Rhondda, South Wales, said: "He absolutely loved his trip and has not stop talking about - he is already planning his next trip. "Theo is autistic and goes through a lot of different obsessions from toothpaste to spices. More recently, he gained an interest in road signs and speed signs. "We often do road sign hunting and look for different speed signs. Every Sunday, we go to Cardiff and he can name every road sign on the journey. "A couple of weeks ago we posted a video of this on TikTok and then Nuneaton Signs got in touch after viewing the video. "They sent Theo a present which included some road sign tablemats, a road sign poster and then they invited us up for the day. "They were amazing. Theo needs preparation before he goes somewhere new and Nuneaton Signs made a custom video to Theo to make him feel at ease. "They even asked for his favourite food and snacks. They even had a parking bay ready for us with our names on. It was fantastic. "Theo made his own custom sign and settled on 30mph sign. They also gave him a massive road sign that lights up. "They are an amazing company. He was so confident there. It is a loud place and we did worry. "He had his ear defenders on and he was in his absolute element. He had so much fun. He has talked about it none stop for the last few days. "Theo struggles with sound and thrives off routine, every Sunday we go the same place and park in the same floor. "Any changes to that routine are a struggle. He constantly looks for sounds he loves and listens to them on repeat. "He has come on loads though. His communication has come on. He is starting to have conversations with us now." As well as a passion for road signs, Carl admits watching and editing his TikTok videos has helped Theo bring out his creative side. They have even both created a book titled 'New Food Saturdays' which is read by book readers on their TikTok page. He added: "In a way, TikTok has helped him. He loves it: he loves making the videos and editing them alongside me. "The TikTok just grew and grew. He wants to post all the time. We film everything and watch it together. "It is helping get creative - some of the videos are his idea which is great. If he wants to make TikTok videos when he is older, then that is great. "We also have created a book called 'New Food Saturdays' and we have many people read them to use on our page. It is fantastic." Their TikTok page called 'Daddy and Theo' has had over 2 million likes.