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Child Behavior (Expert Forum)
4 years old child development
Answered by
Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D. - Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development
4 years old child development
by lrm02, Aug 18, 2006 12:00AM
My daughter is almost four years old, she is an only child with me at home, she is an active, happy, sensitive child, had reached her milestones on time but has some issues that concern me.
When she was three years old we enrolled her in a full-time preschool and because the spoken language at home is not English she was not talking too much at school and even at home; she had several infections (bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections) so we stopped the school until she recovers.
When I addressed my concerns about her speech to her pediatrician he suspected the mild autism but when he rechecked her after her recovery from the infection he ruled out the autism issue.
The SLP who tested her told us that ?she doesn?t have a language delay in any area but she is developing her language, has a good shift gaze? plus she is not suspecting the autism she said that is a normal silent period seen in the bilingual children; and I see that she is progressing and had a very wide vocabulary knows the ABC?s (since she was one year old), can count to 200, all the colors and shapes, animal, vegetables, fruit ?etc but she still doesn?t have a full conversation or tell a story from the beginning till the end. She can ask and answer questions, sometime she mixes the pronouns but when I ask her to repeat she says it in the correct way. she has pretend plays but she doesn?t meet children too much only in the play park or play dates so she does not have best friends but she loves to play with other kids.
She had temper tantrums and meltdown with kicking and hitting last year but it is almost disappearing now. Sometime she talks to herself.
She has hand movements sometime she moves her hands with her mouth especially and she blinks her eyes when she is tired and wants to sleep or bored but when I ask her to stop she stops but she returns to it later. Her eye contact varies if she tired or sleepy the eye contact becomes poor and if she is happy it turns to be very good. If she is sleepy and we speak with a stranger she becomes very fussy
She is good in flash cards and reading, can solve even the kindergarten questions, loves reading, and answer the questions related to each story, she loves music, has a very good memory and can sing many songs.
The most things concerning me are the hand movements and the up and down in the eye contacts and her behavior and fussiness when she is tired or needs to sleep do you think that it is normal for a child in her age or she needs to be seen by specialist or it is a child behavior and development.
Thank you
When she was three years old we enrolled her in a full-time preschool and because the spoken language at home is not English she was not talking too much at school and even at home; she had several infections (bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections) so we stopped the school until she recovers.
When I addressed my concerns about her speech to her pediatrician he suspected the mild autism but when he rechecked her after her recovery from the infection he ruled out the autism issue.
The SLP who tested her told us that ?she doesn?t have a language delay in any area but she is developing her language, has a good shift gaze? plus she is not suspecting the autism she said that is a normal silent period seen in the bilingual children; and I see that she is progressing and had a very wide vocabulary knows the ABC?s (since she was one year old), can count to 200, all the colors and shapes, animal, vegetables, fruit ?etc but she still doesn?t have a full conversation or tell a story from the beginning till the end. She can ask and answer questions, sometime she mixes the pronouns but when I ask her to repeat she says it in the correct way. she has pretend plays but she doesn?t meet children too much only in the play park or play dates so she does not have best friends but she loves to play with other kids.
She had temper tantrums and meltdown with kicking and hitting last year but it is almost disappearing now. Sometime she talks to herself.
She has hand movements sometime she moves her hands with her mouth especially and she blinks her eyes when she is tired and wants to sleep or bored but when I ask her to stop she stops but she returns to it later. Her eye contact varies if she tired or sleepy the eye contact becomes poor and if she is happy it turns to be very good. If she is sleepy and we speak with a stranger she becomes very fussy
She is good in flash cards and reading, can solve even the kindergarten questions, loves reading, and answer the questions related to each story, she loves music, has a very good memory and can sing many songs.
The most things concerning me are the hand movements and the up and down in the eye contacts and her behavior and fussiness when she is tired or needs to sleep do you think that it is normal for a child in her age or she needs to be seen by specialist or it is a child behavior and development.
Thank you
Doctor's Answer
by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Aug 19, 2006 12:00AM
, Aug 19, 2006 12:00AM
Your daughter sounds very normal; I agree with the opinions you have received that indicate this is so. Her language is coming along, and the experience she had in the pre-school is common in children who speak one language at home and then encounter a different language in school. Eventually, though, it works out fine. And the behaviors you witness when your daughter is tired are very typical of young children and are not at all a cause for worry. There is no need for your daughter to see a specialist.
