Soon to be 4 year old DS completely ignores me

[Madcat22]

DS is 4 next month. For a while now he rarely answers questions or responds to things said to him - it takes several times asking the question and often taking away what he is doing for the time being to get him to focus. He is like this with most people. It's not his hearing. It's like he is totally in his own little world and has no idea people are talking to him. Is this normal? Starting school in September so hoping it passes.

My 4yo ds went thro this phase too. For a few months he ignored us and had to be constantly asked and asked before he would acknowledge us. Nearly 5 now and seems to have grown out of it. I found saying his name in a singsongy way like jaaaaayyymmmes (not his name) got his attention straightaway than james! JAMES! ever did. Or going up and holding his hand before asking him something, getting him to look at me before starting a conversation.
IMO it's totally normal at this age for them to be on another planet!

My DS is the same age and is exactly the same. Completely ignores me but wants my complete attention when he wants something and it has to be done asap or has a meltdown or starts whining. It's exhausting and a constant battle doing any day to day thing. I'm hoping as pp said, that's its a phase and we'll go into the magic 4's that everyone says is amazing ( but then again they said 3 was better than age 2 and I disagree! )

Completely agree Toastmonster - almost the day he turned three he became a total monkey and so did all his friends! Think it should be the Terrible 3s, not 2s.