what are 3 year olds meant to be able to do?

[misdee]

dd2 has hospital appointment just after her 3rd birthday. she has problems with walking (in that she falls every 10 steps or so, and cant stand upright for a period of time before she topples) but am wondering about speech and other areas too. she does speak, but the only other child i know aroud the same age is very advanced in her speech and has been stringing sentances together since she was 18months or something. dd2 speech isnt very clear, i have to translate for her. she also agree with almost everything i say.

MY dd is only 2 months old but i do have a nice whos just 3 years old and about speech she was able to do small sentences (sorry about my english, not my first language) like i want this or i don like that, stuff like that and i could pretty much undestand everything she says.

Other thing i know is that she just began to learn to go to the bath by herself but still sometimes she had a few " accidents" and when she runs she still falls... a lot. hope that helps

misdee, think it's probably a good idea to get her checked out. In my mind it's the toppling over that's the biggest worry. But everything might be connected. I'm sorry for not being exactly sure, but isn't your dh in hospital. Is it possibly something genetic that your dd is a carrier for that could have possible minor effects (like you are describing) if you are only a carrier and don't have the disease. Apologies in advance if I've got it totally wrong....have been having terrible asthma attacks last few days and brain is all soggy from too much medicine.

Do you feel it's a balance/ co ordination issue? Or muscle strength?

It could be she's just a late bloomer.

Don't know how far away the appointment is, but getting kids in the water regularly, swimming and playing can offer loads of benefits. Not physical - the movements can speed up synapse flow in the brain, and is fantastic sensory wise.

Misdee if I remember rightly your dd and my ds are almost exactly the same age. My ds's speech is pretty clear to strangers and he speaks in sentences. My dd at the same age was a good talker but used to fall over alot. It used to drive me mad and teachers/friends would comment. However, she has grown out of this (probebly since she turned 4 yo) but at the time I really thought I needed to see someone. I think you need to get her walking problems looked into though as it sounds like she's falling very frequently. My friend's ds needed special shoes for a while to right his falling down/over problems.

Sorry meant special support shoes (for his weak ankles).

dd2 has been walking since she was 10months old. she just hasnt really improved on that skill in 2years. her dimples on her back arent elvel which makes me feel that she may have a leg length discrepancy, so am pushing to get that checked properly this time. she isnt the most graceful creature, instead of moving round things she will run through them which results in more accidents. it has been suggested that her spatical(??) awareness might be a problem here.

My friends DS, who's 3 1/2 falls over quite a lot, she got this checked out and I can't remember full details but they think he is walking more on his toes iykwim. At the start of the holidays he got special shoes to try and weigh his heels down a bit but i haven't seen her much since so i don't know if its working. His speech is sometimes a little unclear but mostly good. HTH

Hi misdee I also have this problem with my dd2 she is now 3 and 4 in feb06 and her cousin dd is the same...seems they have a language of their own...my dd2 is seeing a speech therapist etc...but does not seem much improved, also think that my ds is going the same way he is nearly two and not talking but he has 2 big sisters to contend with etc.....it is really hard to deal with

maybe a bit like dyspraxia? We used to carry a falling down kit with us all the time.

hi lemonice....do you have experience with this???