3 year old talking to himself

[katerosexox]

I just want to know how common this is really. My 3 year old repeats people a lot in whispers if you tell him something 99% of the he will repeat it to himself under his breath and it's gets triggered 10x worse at bed time it's impossible to get him to sleep at a decent time because he lays there and whispers to himself for a good 1-2 hours before actually dropping off, it's like he can't help it at night I can remind him time and time again it's bedtime now but 5 seconds later he's whispering again. Would you consider it normal behaviour?

I don't know if it's "normal" but I used to talk to myself all the time as a kid. I remember once my dad walking in quietly while I was doing it and feeling mortified so I must have been older than three!

I'm more it less normal now, anyway 😁

Seriously though, I do believe that having an internal monologue that's really not all that internal is normal in toddlers and young children.

Yes, normal :-)

I believe this is called echolalia.
I had this, it subsided into adulthood. It's so annoying, it's like a compulsion to do it.

Hi OP

my just over three year old did this. Up until a few months ago. She stopped. She used to whisper to herself just before sleeping too. It wasn’t long though.

Palilalia is repeating yourself usually under your breath, echolalia is repeating what others have said.
Echolalia is an essential part of speech and language development to a point.
I’d have a read about them both.

I think this is normal.

I an an only child and talked to myself regularly as a child. Now I’m an adult, I talk to myself in different accents. Seriously.

That’s maybe a bit abnormal, TBF.

Have you watched the Netflix show Old Enough? The very young kids in it who set off on solo errands for their parents often talk to themselves the whole way, which works very well for entertainment purposes!

That's not exactly what you're describing but it is part of the same developmental process.

I think talking to yourself a little bit is normal and not worrying. However, it seems a bit worrying that he is doing it for up to two hours at bedtime and can’t stop. To me that comes across like it may be a bit of a compulsion that’s stopping him from relaxing. How early is he going to bed? If he’s sitting up whispering for two hours is it possible he isn’t tired?

Probably part of learning a language. Acquisition etc

@katerosexox does your little one still do this?

My DD does this she is almost 12. She is high functioning autistic (not suggesting your child is DD is much older) and I think it is to help her process things that have happened or will happen soon.

this is a form of echolalia, his brain is not processing verbal information so by speaking it he's having to think about the instruction so the brain processes it better

does he follow any instructions straight away? or only "gets it" when he's said it
im asking as Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a possibility

are you seeing and other SEN symptoms?

i have 2 kids with complex disabilities and i am a admin on a support group on Facebook for kids with complex/rare disabilities so i do have some expert training(my 12 y old has a lot of rare conditions so ive bene on a lot of courses) and personal experience as my youngest has APD and even at 12 he still does this.(he is mentally 7 ish though)

he does this after either verbally being told something or watching tv
he repeats to him self the dialog-conversation going on that's been said so his brain processes it, films and shows are a long process for us

out side im usually his voice as explaining this is to much, i just say hes non verbal and asd. this means he cant be without a adult that gets it and as im a lone parent its me

on the game consoles ,laptops and phones we have had to turn on verbal instead of written words.
so where you select anything in your phone, automatically read it this reads it out loud

ive learnt now for years to text him anything i want(phone reads it out in a robotic voice ,he repeats it) instead of taking as that sinks in more than verbal

i don't get why a robotic voice sinks in and not a normal human voice but it works for him

i also use alexa a lot, ie if hes in his room and i want to ask him anything i use communicate on the alexia app and it comes over the speaker or on the tv.

we have had to change it from the standard female alexia voice to a new zealands mans voice as he understands that better

its all to do with pitch and volume of said voice at the time.

instead of typing a text(even though he can read and write) he uses the voice to text function and the text automatically writes as he speaks.

these functions are on all electronics but 99.9% of people doesn't use them as they have no need.
even if they are not on the phone there are many free apps

a simple conversation for us takes ages

I do this too. Scottish (Glasgow and Highlands), deep south US, various English... so many accents.

OP, your son sounds very normal, please don't stop him whispering to himself, it's how he's processing the world. He sounds lovely tbh. I used to love listening to my dd talk to herself when she was little.

to add that's a basic link if you google it there are websites that go in to it in more depth but i thought a nhs link would be better