To be worried about my 3 year old?

[MsFrog]

My 3 year old DS is obsessed with numbers. Obsessed. He talks about them constantly, and has done for over a year. Everything else we do ends up about numbers, e.g. playdoh, swinging at the park. In the car he just reels off numbers for looooooong chunks of time. Odd number, even numbers, all the times tables, up in 5s or 10s or 3s or 50s. He runs around shouting numbers when he's playing. At the water park he didn't splash in the water, he just bent down and traced sums in the puddles. He can do addition and subtraction.

It is endless and it's driving DH and me absolutely up the wall. I'm starting to feel like it's just not normal (I know that's not the best word to use). He's an anxious little boy as well, but not overly so.

Anyone have any experience of anything like this?

Get your health visitor to refer your son to a paediatrician. They can do an initial assessment and see whether he fits any criteria for any conditions.

Note: None of us are normal.

Thanks for your reply. I didn't even think about the health visitor, I forgot about her! I just don't know if this is typical of child development, or something more. The nursery have commented on it, but not said too much

My DS wakes us up every morning asking us various maths questions and has been able to do simple addition and subtraction for about 6 months now (he turned 4 in August). I just took it as another sign that he was very ready for starting reception and let him get on with it (my maths skills are just about able to keep up with his sums at the moment - not sure how much longer that will be true for!).

I do think it's unusual, though that's not to say it's necessarily a worry. Is he closer to 3 or 4? Did he learn to count in those sequences himself using repeated addition or has he just learn them in the same way one would learn a poem/nursery rhyme/song lyrics? To put it in context, counting up in 3s and 50s is on the Y2 and Y3 curriculum.

My son was obsessed with numbers. It's tapered off a bit now (no more constant questions) but he's still really good at maths.

He's five now.

He turned 3 in May. He learned them himself from YouTube videos about numbers, which he loves! Now he can "use" the knowledge, e.g. not just repeat something he's heard. Today, he sang the numberblocks song and as a joke, instead of "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" he sangs "250, 200, 150, 100, 50"

@DressBitch did he talk about them all the time and repeat sequences to himself? Did it drive you mad?! Maybe I'm just a bit horrible and not used to toddler behaviour

DS was number obsessed as a pre schooler
Maths was his strongest subject right through school
He’s now 28 and an accountant

DS was always obsessed with numbers and letter patterns. Loved Maisy Mouse before he could walk, if that's a thing these days. He's an Olympiad Gold Medal winner and at Oxford studying linguistics, philosophy and psychology.

As per pp I'd suggest you contact your GP, is the colour yellow a thing at all?

My friends son was like this...... absolute genius!

Just saying!

He has a doctorate now.

Yep my DC has phases of being like this and my DN was very like it. DN is v bright and exceptionally good at maths, games, computing etc.

I think DC often get really "into" something, just maths is a bit more uncommon than say trains or dinosaurs etc.

DS1 at 4 could explain in great detail how coal fired engines work, where you find maglev vs bullet trains, what a pantograph is etc...
Plus lots of little kids seem to have encyclopedic dinosaur knowledge.

I think he sounds bright as a button He might like team umizoomi on Amazon Prime (kids show where they solve problems through maths)

Thanks so much, everyone. I did just think he's probably very bright, but it's so relentless o started to worry about OCD or something. I think I might ask his nursery for their thoughts. Surely they'd mention if they thought he needed referring on?

Ooh thanks @Camomila, good tip

@MsFrog

Thanks so much, everyone. I did just think he's probably very bright, but it's so relentless o started to worry about OCD or something. I think I might ask his nursery for their thoughts. Surely they'd mention if they thought he needed referring on?

Are you or your OH very intelligent?

My friends DH was and all his family, not sure if that made a difference.

Lol this sounds like a stealth brag 😂

My son is hyperlexic, and obsessed with letters and numbers. He is autistic. It's very common for children on the autistic spectrum to become obsessed with letters and numbers, as the process of ordering, and later adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying, is a form of stimming for them. Stimming is: for enjoyment
an attempt to gain sensory input, eg rocking may be a way to stimulate the balance (vestibular) system; hand-flapping may provide visual stimulation
an attempt to reduce sensory input, eg focusing on one particular sound may reduce the impact of a loud, distressing environment; this may particularly be seen in social situations
to deal with stress and anxiety and to block out uncertainty.

It sounds like your DS is stimming when they are reciting these numbers.

OCD?
Makes him feel smart?
Loves numbers?
Autism ?
Distraction technique?

Stimming can be great btw, my son stims when he's happy. It's not a bad thing!

I have a little boy like this in my preschool (also motivated by numberblocks!). He's coming up to 4 and it has worn off a bit over the holidays.

At age 3/4, anyway, before I went to school, I was obsessed with letter and words and constantly spelt them out where we I saw them. I was just ready to get to school and start learning to read and write. Perhaps it's a similar thing with your little boy OP.

They go through these phases, mine did. It wouldn't have occurred to me to seek professional advice about it.

He'll probably move on to something else soon enough but there are people who see everything in terms of mathematics.

You could speak to him kindly about going on and on and getting on people's nerves.

We had a two year old in nursery who was very good at addition and subtraction.
Could add columns of hundreds, for example, knew times tables etc
His parents were very clever people.

Op this sounds very much like my eldest at 3/4. Obsessed with numbers and sums and counting and sequences. At 4 his favourite thing to do was bring me a pen and paper and make me write a long list of sums for him to do

He also had speech problems and other red flags - lining everything up, obsessively grouping things by colour, some borderline ocd tendencies. He had a couple of assessments where they were clearly testing for autism but all were OK.

He's now 13 and no SEN at all. But he's still obsessed with numbers and facts and turns everything possible into an equation.

We can be having the randomest conversation - about how lovely the weather is and it's 30 degrees today. The next second he's on Google to find out the temperature on this day last year. Then he's working out the percentage increase in temperature from last year to this year (in his head). Then expressing it as a decimal. Then working out the variance between this years average temperature and this.... and telling us all as if we all find it as fascinating as he does. It's utterly wearing at times.

We've had to have several conversations with him about remembering not to talk AT people about maths as usually they won't be interested 🤦🏻‍♀️

You have a clever kid who may or may not also be on the autistic spectrum. Congrats on all counts. Numbers can be beautiful, and a comfort as @rhonddacynontaf suggests.
The two kids I knew like this, my DB and a friends DS, both ended up at Cambridge reading Maths. One turned out to be autistic and the other didn't BUT in time they both also developed a range of other interests (music, languages, reading)..enjoy the ride.