For my son, it was not a stage. And both of our consultants tell me that it is quite common with Autism although my son has more "OCD" issues than most. The trick is to work on teaching your child to be more flexible and resilient. As with most skills, you start out small, practice frequently, and provide motivation.

It is pretty common for this to happen, you can try to redirect but if it doesn't work and she is going to have a meltdown I would just do it. Sometimes they move through the stage and go to something else in a while.

You can try to use a reward system to try to get her to do something else instead but it doesn't always work. My son and daughter have both gone from one thing to another at some point, some easier to deal with than others. There is a routine my daughter goes through every time she comes in the house we can't change but it isn't huge and we just deal with it.