4 1/2 year old comprehension development

[bekah1998]

I have a 4 1/2 year old boy whom I keep in Childcare.  He can follow 2 directions at a time when we are doing it for learning.  Has trouble w/ 3 directions--have to repeat or tell him again.  Also has trouble w/ comprehension.  I will ask him a question:i.e....did you wash your hands...and he will give me a look like he doesnt' understand the question and say, "uh...".  Most of the time I will just have him wash his hands, again, because I can't get him to answer me of he'll say "I don't know".  I will give directions to the whole class to hang their papers up on our "clothes line".  All of the other students will follow my directions...the boy will go put his in his bookbag or cubbie (this has happened several times).  I have even asked him to repeat what I say so I am sure he has listened but sometimes he still does not do it.  
Another issue is that when he gets excited he beats his chest (like Tarzan or a Gorilla), or beats his legs or claps really fast.  Any type of advice would be helpful.  Seems to have difficulty with comprehending.  I have been teaching kids in my childcare for 4 years now and this is the first time I have come across a student with these comprehension issues.

Thanks for your help.
BG

[bearfan54]

Hi bekah

My wife and I had this problem with with our son, he has just turned 4 years old and just started pre-school also with a speech delay program.  He has a class that has 5 others with a speech delay and then 5 other childeren that serve as peer mentors to them, ones that talk well and show good manners.  I would really recommend contacting your school district and ask who to talk to about testing your child.  Yes it sounds bad to think my child is this old and dont talk, but I tell you what I am so proud of the work these speech pathologists do with him, they are amazing, and I know you will be amazed at the work they do.  They go for a normal school year here in nebraska where I am at for like 2 hours a day and get treated as school students, it is very cool! And that makes them feel bigger!  I would recommend trying this and if you have any questions feel free to message me.....my email is ***@****

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It is not at all unusual for a child of four to experience difficulty with muti-step directions. In fact, it is really not a good idea to issue several directions at once. Two should be the maximum. Children of four simply do not have working memories that are sufficiently developed to handle directions that contain several or more steps. Now, in spite of that, this child may display some delay in his language development. An evaluation by a Speech/Language professional is in order.