Am I imagining it?

[Frogandbear]

I honestly don't know if I'm imagining it but I'm sure DS is going through a major developmental spurt at the moment. Has anyone else experienced a similar thing with their DC?

DS is 3.4 years. Within the past month he seems to have changed a lot. He isn't a daze and much more aware of the world around him, he responds to most of my requests (which he would previously have ignored like he was deaf), he is responding to his name 80% of the time, his eye contact I would now consider normal, he shows joint attention skills, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's not magic - he still doesn't talk and is different from a NT child, but it just seems crazy how much he's changed lately. Especially when I compare how he was a year ago...

[Frogandbear]

Forgot to mention - DS has ASD.

[WellTidy]

This is great! My DS2 is 4.6 and he has ASD too, coupled with developmental and speech and language delays. He has periods where I can see him coming on really well - in the last four months, he has gone from not saying a single word to putting phrases together in context, other times he has been amenable to new foods etc. It is wonderful when it happens. I've learnt to enjoy it and take happiness from nit, rather than trying to analyse why this might be happening eg looking in detail at his diet, supplements, amount of screen time, exposure to new or different people, toys, environment etc. Don't get me wrong, I do try and stay aware of everything that might be making a difference, but not to the extent that I used to, which stopped me sitting back and enjoying it for what it is.

[Frogandbear]

Thanks everyone

WellTidy That is fantastic news about your DS too. I think for a long time, over the past couple of years, I was looking for things that might have a positive or negative effect but the past six months or so I have relaxed a lot about things. I find it fascinating though...

[mummytime]

It sounds like a standard theory of Child development - based on NTs but I can't see why it wouldn't apply to children with SN too.
A Soviet Scientist named Vygotsky (hope that's spelled write) has a concept of a "zone of proximal development" which is that basically there are a range of new skills a child can be developing based on what they've just learnt. So development isn't linear.

For example once a child learns to understand some words they can: use those to learn new words so "Stop" enables learning "Road" from the phrase "Stop Road" and "hot" from "stop hot" etc., it also allows the development of the child saying words, and it opens a whole range of new activities such as looking for a cookie when Mum says ".....Cookie...."

From personal experience "just before" a developmental breakthrough can often be full of frustration and "bad" behaviour.

[Frogandbear]

Mummytime That's very interesting and definitely makes sense.

[Patienceandchocolate]

DS1 does this every six months. It always coincides with the longer school holidays at Christmas and in the summer. I think that being without the stress and anxiety of school allows him the chance to move forwards. It is so fabulous every time he makes a leap.

[Mumoftwinsandanother]

yes another one here who has a child who makes significant leaps from time to time. He has for the last year progressed consistently at a high rate though as well (rather than just a leap IYSWIM). Occasionally he has slight regressions on some skills as well but they usually come back.