Does anyone else have conversations with their 4yo like this?

[lljkk]

He just seems to seize on unimportant details, and to repeat what I've said to other people who were present the whole time. DS is the master of the obvious.

A simplified example...I'm walking down the road with DD (7yo) + DS (4yo). I greet a friend:

Me: "Hi Ann!"
DS: "Who was that?"
Me: "My friend Ann."
DS: "Who she?"
Me: "Just someone I know."
DS: "Is she you' friend?"
Me: "Yes, she is my friend."
DS to DD: "That was mummy's friend, her name Ann!"
DD: Says nothing.
DS: tugs DD's sleeve, implores her to respond. Starts to get mildly hysterical about getting a response from her.
DD, wearily, eventually: "Yes [DS name], I know!"

DD and DS1 didn't interact like this, but is it just normal for some little boys? DS has to summarise, has to get acknowledged.

I only have one ds but he is just like this. he keeps on until you engage with him. It is incredibly wearing when it happens to you but when I notice him saying something to another child and getting no response I do find it a bit poignant. He repeats and repeats ad nauseum until he gets some sort of acknowledgement

My ds does this too! Was terrible when learning to talk because would just repeat a word to infinity until you said it back to him. He was in a state of permenant fury that i couldn't understand him. It hadn't occured to me that it was a boy thing!

Not just a little boy thing. DD has to be heard. The number of conversations I've had interrupted by her bouncing up and down, hand in the air (ha, school's influence) only for her important message to be ... 'my coat is pink!' or similar. Argh. She gets very very frustrated if she's not acknowledged (despite often not acknowledging when someone is talking to HER), or is not understood first time round.

My DS is 6 now and was like yours when younger tho I'd forgotten till I read your post. It was incredibly wearing and I always put it down to him being very chatty, any excuse to be speaking and maybe a little bit of a reassurance thing going on too , you know, hello I'm here remember me type thing ...... (as if you could forget, he was relentless lol!) But just as lazycow says it was hard watching him getting no response from others, I used to have to stop myself from yelling "just acknowledge him for gods sake"! He doesn't seem so needy of acknowledgement now but still speaks a lot and asks TONS of questions so yes you've guessed it he has all the more information needing to be shared around!

hee hee. reminded me of when I took ds (4 months) to dd2s (4) class for 'show and tell'.

I said a bit about the differences between babies and 4 yr olds etc. then I asked if they had any questions.

lots of hands went up. but the 'questions' they asked were; 'I went to france for my holiday', 'that's my name on the board', 'my mummy is called Tina' etc.

did make me laugh!!

My dd was like this too . I think that they are just trying to grasp the rules of conversation:

I say something,

You acknowledge and respond

They just haven't got the hang of content! I'd see it as a positive thing.

That's interesting, fondant, had never thought of it that way.

Argh, cass66, that's reminded me - DD aged 3 went to a 'literature' event with Bob the Builder. Again they were asked if they had any questions, hands shot up ... Fortunately DD wasn't selected as when I asked her afterwards what she wanted to 'ask', she was actually going to tell him she had a sore bottom.

It's like when they copy the rhythm of songs when they don't really know what the words are. They're picking up on the structure of language, and then meaning comes afterwrds - that's my theory anyway!

In the meantime you have to put up with a lot of 'Mr Tumble on', 'Mr Tumble on' (like you care)

Yes! ds is exactly the same. In fact your description of having to summarise and be acknowledged is spot on! He's just 4. You have to repeat back to him what he's said. And he re-explains everything he's told to anyone else present in case they haven't understood.

Oh thanks for the replies, that's quite reassuring.

DS usually asks a qustion and answers it in the same sentence:

Why is it not raining because there are no clouds today