3 year old DS and his strange use of language

[hichaechoc]

Am re-posting this as forgot to check and posted with a wierd non-relevant subject!

DS1, who is 3, has generally good language I think. He is at nursery 2 days a week and they have no concerns about his development (as an over anxious mother I have checked). However, I have noticed that a certain amount of what he says (perhaps 10%, maybe more) seems to be 'learnt phrases'. For example, my DH used to say 'It's a lovely sunny day' a lot to him (I found it very annoying actually he said it so frequently), and I have noticed that DS quite often says it now, copying the exact words, sometimes even if it's raining!

Also, he has the habit sometimes repeating whole chunks of books we have read together. I do read to him a lot as he loves it, but this seemingly meaningless repetition of parts of books seems a bit odd to me, and I know it can be flag for ASD.

Does anyone have any experience of an otherwise NT preschooler doing anything similar? Does anyone think it warrants further investigation?

Sounds like my DD's at that age. They do repeat a lot of things that they hear and they will memorise books that they have read a lot. Can be annoying as if I was in a rush to do something I would sometimes try and skip a paragraph to speed a story up, but they would always pull me up on it and tell me word for word what I had missed out.

All sounds fairly normal.

Sounds like my dd too.

She watched a Snow White animated film around the time she turned 4 and picked up lots of phrases from it.

One evening she said to DH 'Act like a human being for once in your life' but she had no idea what it meant

Also things like 'Curfews are so boring!'

Needless to say I am more careful about what she watches now because she went around for weeks talking like a spoilt teenager.

I don't think you should worry. I think children enjoy speaking like adults and repeat things they hear a lot.

If he is repeating things you've said, just watch what you say in front of him as you never know who he'll repeat it to!

This sounds very similar to what my DS (3.9) does. I would have thought it's pretty normal; they learn by copying.

Normal IME. That's how they learn to talk, by copying.

p.s. forgot to say, if DS comes out with a random phrase I always ask him if he knows what it means, and if he doesn't, I explain it to him - that way I know he is actually learning rather than just parrotting, IYSWIM.

Thank you for all your responses, it's good to know that other children do this too.

FernieB - in response to your post on my other thread (sorry about the double post there), he does recite whole paragraphs sometimes, as well as phrases. It seems to be partcularly prevalent with rhyming books, such as the Gruffalo. It's really like he's talking to himself when he does this.

"Need new car insurance?" My DC aged 2 asked my Mum pleasantly one day....I realised DC watches too much telly!

Think this sounds totally normal. My DD of 2 and a half repeats things we say frequently. Yesterday it was (said with feeling) " I can only do one thing at once" and the day before it was "it's a nice sunny day" (it wasn't, it was pissing it down). Really wouldn't worry.

Hi I know long shot how’s your son now

@Firstimemum24 you really will get the OPs attention more easily on all of these threads if you try an @