Is it normal for a 2.9 yo girl to have a really short attention span.

[lucyellensmum]

Im worried now because her speech therapist, despite signing her off of ST for now, said her concentration is weak.

Today has been a crappy horrible weather day, i have been a crappy boring mummy with PMT, but i think we have had ALL her toys out and she has only wanted to play with them for a max of five minutes, either alone or with me - she is now pretending to be a dog We have done drawing, cutting, sticking, reading, puzzles, train sets, being a dog, more drawing, glitter (everywhere) watching TV for no more than 60 seconds (ok so not such a bad thing - but my tummy hurts and i want to go to bed with a hotty bottle).

Is she always like this?

She is still quite little to concentrate on craft activities.

DD had a pretty short attention span until well past three except for being read to. That was the one thing she could really concentrate on.

By the way, I know nothing about attention deficit disorders but know a fair amount of 2 yr olds.

she sometimes will sit for hours doing cutting etc, but lately i can't seem to keep her enteratained. She does like playing with torturing the dog though

I would say that it is normal, she is very little.

The average concentration time is one minute for each year of your age. Therefore, your DD should be able to concentrate on an activity chosen by her for just over 2 minutes. Activities chosen by other people for her will have a shorter attention time.

Therefore, I can concentrate for 34 minutes on something (just ), and this is why it is recommended that teenagers revising for an exam have a very short break every 15 - 20 mins.

HTH

colander ive noticed that, if i leave her to play sometimes she will do one particular activity for longer

The average is 10 minutes for this age group. I wouldn't worry, she was probably very bored.

Children do tend to play for longer on activities they have selected themselves, rather than those they had selected for them.

Hope you have a better day tomorrow!