David,
I would appreciate your opinion on a behavior that my daughter has started exhibiting. I’m not sure if this is just a normal age related behavior or if its something more troublesome that I should keep an eye on.
Let me start with a little personal history of my daughter. She is 3 ½ years old has always been healthy with the exception of recurrent ear infections for which she had tubes put in. Her hearing was never troubled by these and her verbal skills are great. She is a very well behaved girl, most people upon meeting her for the first time always assume she is older than she is because of her wonderful behavior. For her age she has a great attention span which becomes grossly obvious when she is around other kids her age. The activities we do together, blocks, computer, books, working with beads, clay, or learning the alphabet etc. always go very well. When there are other children around that are the same age she will still be engrossed in the current activity long after other kids have drifted into something else. She is constantly getting me or my wife to stop whatever we are doing so we can come play with her, she loves learning new things. She attends daycare full time during the week. Her teachers have always commented on what a good listener and helper she is for them and is usually considered one of the best behaved children wherever she goes. (which makes me and the wife feel both proud and lucky!)
What has us concerned is that recently she has started “zoning out”, by this I mean she gets a blank look on her face, her eyes tilt up and she sometimes swallows as well. When this happens its for a short period of time I would say less than 30 seconds. It happens either when she is listening to someone or when she is talking. I asked her once when it happened while I was talking to her “what just happened” “what where you just doing/thinking” and she couldn’t explain anything to me. Her young age makes it hard to communicate on this topic. We have gotten a little apprehensive about this new behavior. Our apprehension grew when one of her teachers asked if she had a hearing problem, she said it seems like our daughter “tunes her out” and she wasn’t sure if she was ignoring her on purpose or had a hearing problem. I have never noticed any hearing problems with her, she hers whispers and soft noises just fine even if her back is to you. Her Pediatrician has never noticed anything that has caused him concern with her hearing which was followed closely due to her ear infection history.
Is this just a 3 ½ year old being a 3 ½ old? Or could this be the start of a bigger problem? We would appreciate any advice on what to do next or what to watch out for.
Thanks!
I would appreciate your opinion on a behavior that my daughter has started exhibiting. I’m not sure if this is just a normal age related behavior or if its something more troublesome that I should keep an eye on.
Let me start with a little personal history of my daughter. She is 3 ½ years old has always been healthy with the exception of recurrent ear infections for which she had tubes put in. Her hearing was never troubled by these and her verbal skills are great. She is a very well behaved girl, most people upon meeting her for the first time always assume she is older than she is because of her wonderful behavior. For her age she has a great attention span which becomes grossly obvious when she is around other kids her age. The activities we do together, blocks, computer, books, working with beads, clay, or learning the alphabet etc. always go very well. When there are other children around that are the same age she will still be engrossed in the current activity long after other kids have drifted into something else. She is constantly getting me or my wife to stop whatever we are doing so we can come play with her, she loves learning new things. She attends daycare full time during the week. Her teachers have always commented on what a good listener and helper she is for them and is usually considered one of the best behaved children wherever she goes. (which makes me and the wife feel both proud and lucky!)
What has us concerned is that recently she has started “zoning out”, by this I mean she gets a blank look on her face, her eyes tilt up and she sometimes swallows as well. When this happens its for a short period of time I would say less than 30 seconds. It happens either when she is listening to someone or when she is talking. I asked her once when it happened while I was talking to her “what just happened” “what where you just doing/thinking” and she couldn’t explain anything to me. Her young age makes it hard to communicate on this topic. We have gotten a little apprehensive about this new behavior. Our apprehension grew when one of her teachers asked if she had a hearing problem, she said it seems like our daughter “tunes her out” and she wasn’t sure if she was ignoring her on purpose or had a hearing problem. I have never noticed any hearing problems with her, she hers whispers and soft noises just fine even if her back is to you. Her Pediatrician has never noticed anything that has caused him concern with her hearing which was followed closely due to her ear infection history.
Is this just a 3 ½ year old being a 3 ½ old? Or could this be the start of a bigger problem? We would appreciate any advice on what to do next or what to watch out for.
Thanks!
)
