2-yr old "away with the fairies"

[moominbabe]

DD has just turned two, and is a lovely, active, curious little girl. She has average vocab for her age, does 2 or 3 word sentences regularly, loads of imaginative play and interaction with us and others, and is generally lovely and normal. But every so often she gets this blank stare and gazes off into space for 10 seconds or so before rejoining us.

It is often triggered by someone asking her a question - she is not good at making decisions yet, and I was wondering if this is just her way of avoiding having to say something or make a choice? I have no experience with kids this age, so am not sure if this it totally normal or not. We've had comments about her being "away with the fairies" or "zoned out"/"phased out" from people who have seen it. Its a bit difficult to get her attention back but not impossible after a few seconds if we try to distract her with something. Usually we just let her come back on her own.

Is this totally normal for an indecisive two year old?

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Try and film one or two of these episodes on your phone, and show the film to your GP. It may be absolutely nothing at all, but it may also be some kind of absence seizure... A video clip could help your GP decide if this needs further investigation.

[Pagwatch]

My son has a very slow processing time. He has asd which I know is not relevant to your DD but he does the thing you describe when asked a question or asked to make a choice.

[moominbabe]

oh that is very interesting Pagwatch. I've never heard of slow processing time before, but having just googled it, it could be describing me!! I'm pretty good academically (multiple degrees/postgrad qualifications) but have always felt "slow" and taken a lot longer to get answers than my peers. Maths working takes an age, although I get the right answer eventually. It is the reason I don't try to hurry her - I hate being hurried myself and will lose the thread of what I am working on, so am happy to give her time to make decisions. Will look into that further.

[Pagwatch]

It's interesting isn't it?
I do agree with RawCoconutmacarron that it is certainly worth investigating absence seizures - ds1 had investigations for this and it was good to get that excluded.
Your DD just rang a bell because of the proximity of her 'tuning out' to decisions or questions.
Once we had we just learnt to give DS2 time it helped. Sometimes he taps his head and says "thinking" before he looks off into middle distance for a bit.
I wish I could get away with that sometimes.

[notaflamingclue]

Gosh that's interesting. One of the things which DP does, which drives me absolutely insane, is pause for
......................................................................................................................................................................................................
AGES after I ask him a question. I will google slow processing now!