Worried

[TrishaRendsland]

My son just turned 3 in July.  He is very intelligent and understands what you say to him, can carry out instructions, but he is not talking very well.  He says yellow, no, noodles, and truck, but these are the only words I have been able to understand, as when he does speak, he is not clear.  I have also noted that he walks with his shoulders hunched forward and that he falls a lot because he does not ever watch where he is going.  I do not think he has autism because he does not have the episisodes of staring or "being in his own world", though it has been suggested by family and friends.  I'm planning to have him tested in 2 weeks for speech delay and he will start speech therapy, but I wanted to know if there is something else I should be doing.

[Akbari]

hi, I think you may need to occupational therapy for your son because of his posture. pay more attention to hes fine and fast movements and running... how is he?

[tiredbuthappy]

some children are naturally clumsy. in others, constantly bumping into items can be indicative of other problems. he may have spatial issues,poor muscle tone or coordination or sensory processing problems.
in my most recent class i had a couple different cases. one little girl was soooo clumsy she was covered in bruises. i would have suspected abuse if i didn't see her get more them half of the with my very own eyes! i had another little girl who had low muscle tone, which caused her to be clumsy and awkward in general. the third was a little boy who had many problems. he seemed to bump more when he was excited or aggitated. we slowly learned that it wasn't deliberate and he was unaware of it. for example, one day he was excited and came to me for a hug. he ran into my hip so hard i got a huge bruise. he looked up at me startled and asked why i bumped into him. i hadn't moved at all. this same child would bump into chairs, tables, shelves, etc... when excited or aggitated. we strongly suspect he had sensory processing issues.

[margypops]

It does sound like speech delay and speech therapy would be good here, tyhey will tell you in2 weeks what they think.