My daugter is 3 and has been diagnosed with global developmental delay. She has had all sorts of tests and so far nothing. She presents as dyspraxia, with sensory issues and ADHD. I should stress that the proffessionals are reluctant to label her as she is so young but she does have motor planning difficulties. This affects her fine motor skills more than the gross motor and her speech delay is quite severe. It is now more pronounced as other 3yr olds have conversations and I wonder if I will ever be able to have a two way cconversation with her. My heart just breaks for her.
Sometimes I feel encouraged and I try to figure out all sorts creative ways to help her development but it is exhausting!
There are two areas where I feel really stuck, her ADHD and potty training.
Last September, we got to a place where she tells us she has done or is doing a poo. I thought yay!! BUT she won't poo sitting down, always standing. Anytime I make her sit in the potty, she holds it in for the rest of the day and this leads to constipation if she doesn't go in 24hrs. Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I had her bare bottom as I wanted to catch her wee (she is not bothered about been wet, already tried training pants!). She did not wee for 2hrs... what child holds their wee for that long? As soon as I put the nappy on, she did a wee.
The other issue, I call the ADHD.. no formal diagnosis but she wakes up energetic and remains so till bedtime. She is pleasant with though, often humming a tune and dancing. Her attention is quite poor. I struggle to get her to focus on an activity. Reading to her is impossible, she does not follow or appear to want to follow stories of any kind.Yet she will pick up a book and flick back and forth. She will indicate she wants me to read but won't sit still or follow. I have even just said a single word per page before she flicks over. She 'reads' to herself in her own language and it made me wonder if this is how she view s verbal communication. She is however, transfixed by music and singing, has always been. Started with nursery rhymes but now she will watch whole shows of cbeebies pantos,
I guess I am asking if anyone has experience of this behaviour with regards to potty training and how it was resolved, and how to improve her attention without singing nursery rhymes all day.
Sorry for the long post.. wanted to give enough background info.