Nearly 3 year old's development

[angmarie]

My DS is 3 next week , I am concerned about his developmemnt his speech is a bit slow but is coming on each day he see's a speech therapy for it. But his concentration span is very small , he doesnt know his colours ,he can count 1-5 . he starts nursery in September and I am worried he is going to be behind the others.

my dd is 3 the 15th july her speech isnt very clear she cant say s at all but she knows her colours and her counting is very random. she also starts school september and we have had a chat with the nursery teacher who said not to worry she will soon catch up with the othe children as some wont be able to count at all or know colours so im sure it will be the same with your ds and if they have any concerns they will contact you hth.

he sounds fine, ang, please don't worry.

there is a big spectrum of things kids can do at this age, it means very very little. your ds probably can some some things far better than other kids. and if not, who cares? he is very little.

DD was 3 in May and counts

one, two, pee, four, seven, eight, pie, ten

your ds sounds like a 3 year old to me .. don't worry .. there's a huge range of at nurseries

Hi Angmarie,
A couple of things. If a child has an area in which they are struggling they have to put a lot of energy and effort into that - and that can leave not much time and enthusiasm for much else. If DS is struggling with speech that may well be his focus and I wouldn't be too worried about what else is happening alongside it. My mum always used to observe that if a child was having a growth spurt a lot of other stuff slowed down , for example when they are concentrating on walking and moving then babbling will reduce
I have three kids, one with special needs ( incl speech delay) one pretty advanced and one small one shaping up to be very average - so I have seen average, advanced and "special" development - and I have noticed this "one thing at a time" reaction with all of them.
My son with speech problems has given me some insight into how bloody hard it is for our kids when they struggle with something that just seems to happen to most children and whilst we do all the therapy etc he needs I allow him to chill and i allow him to be frustrated etc. He is working harder than the other two at times. So what i am saying is that he may have enough on his plate at the moment and the rest will come when he is less busy with his speech and his usual 3 year old stuff.
HOWEVER don't ignore your instinct if you feel things arn't quite right. I am just saying I wouldn't be worried about academic issues but if you feel he is not understanding instructions that he should or is not playing "normally" then you should persue that.
I thought the book by Dr Sally Ward - Baby talk - was good for general indicators as well as games etc. And get fish oil down him !!!It helps !
I hope this makes sense

I have just started him this week on the omega3 fish oil as I ahve read so much about it .

it sounds silly but I worry as when he was born his body went into shock and shut down and it took awhile to rescuitate him so I keep thinking that one day something is going to go wrong with him and hit me in the face .

I know I shouldnt compare but he seems very baby like compared to my daughter when she was this age.

hi - its only natural to worry but they really ARE all different. I won't just say "don't worry he will be fine" because that used to make me feel terrible when I KNEW inside that my son was struggling. But if he is struggling with speech that may make him seem younger anyway - plus girls always seem more grown up to me.
If he does have issues you are being a good mother to him by being alert and observant as kids benefit from early help but don't think that his problems at birth will necessarily mean he struggles or your anxiety could make him anxious too which is not a good thing.

ang, he does sound fine to me! And you're right, don't compare with your dd; it has certainly seemed to hold true for me that girls mature much earlier than boys; the girls in ds' reception class are way ahead of the boys. It won't help you to compare your girl with your boy!

One of the reasons nursery is good is that it can 'bring them on' a bit - so don't worry about where he is when he starts. He will learn new stuff when he is there and they often have routines which include counting, etc which help them to learn 1 - 10.

My ds is five soon and has only just learned 1 - 20! Really, don't worry. x

Thank you for all your advice , no wonder I am going grey I worry too much

I have to say DD is a 2nd child who didn't have a traumatic birth and she is remarkably more babyish than DS was .. I have seen this with numerous friends' children too where the 2nd child jsut seems slower to develop and I always put it down to being the 2nd child

that certainly holds true for lots of the mums I know who say that they simply don't have time to devote to 'bringing on' the second child; so where their PFB was writing concertos at two the second and subsequent children are sitting unsupervised and dribbling happily

They are all different Hun, DS now 8 still has the concentrations span of a nat! He is bright, but just wonders off into his own world sometimes! He was much slower in reching milestones compared to DD who is 3.5. DD was dry at 2 during the day, DS was 4, DD was sitting in a booster seat at the table eating herself at 2, DS was still in a high chair being fed at 3.5! Both my DC's needed resucitating a birth aswell, but I really don't worry about it. I also have a friend whose DS was born at 24 weeks of pregnancy, and what the other posters have said about children dealing with one thing at a time is so true - Friends DS concentrated on crawling, then walking, feeding self and finally talking when he had mastered all the other arts - one by one. Specialists said that's what most children do. One thing at a time.

PLease try not to worry, try to just let him go at his pace and just carry on being the wonderful Mum you so obviously are.