2.5yr old behaviour + speech dev.

[Calluna]

I'm not looking so much for what is "normal" - DS has always been a fair way behind his peers - more what he should be doing as a minimum.

He just goes. All day. From the minute he wakes to when he goes to bed, he is BF to sleep so has to slow down for that but it's only 5 mins and he's asleep (usually). He doesn't have a day sleep.
Even watching a movie, he'll sit for maybe 10 mins then he's off again.
Motor skills I'm not too concerned with except he wrong stay still long. He can catch a ball at close range- if he stands still enough, he can kick a (afl) football- if he stops long enough to concentrate on what he's doing. He'll sit and listen to a book for 5 mins our play blocks but it doesn't last long before destroying his tower or throwing blocks around the room.

Is this normal? If not how long "should" he be able to sit still for?

Verbally: he still mimics what we say, he's only *just* starting to put his own 3 or 4 word sentences together instead of using the ones we've taught him. He understands alot, although we have to say things the same way each time. Ie he knows what it means if we ask "what colour is the light?" But not "look at the light! What colour is it?" He rarely throws tantrums and is very easy to reason with -most of the time.
He knows his colors, can count to 12 (minus 7 lol), knows the letter "A".

ETA: he repeats the same thing over and over. And over. And over I cannot count how manny times in the last two weeks he had said "havent seen Britty in a while". It must be over 100 times a day. Before that it was weeks of asking to "go see Ming Ma?" it driving everone up the wall!
Is this normal or should he be more advanced than this by now? Where should he be?


I wouldn't have posted about it, except that MIL has noticed it too. Should I talk to the GP about this?

[Artechim]

Developmentally he sounds fine, bit behind my similar age DD1 for speech but ahead in colors/counting. The attention span thing might be an issue though, might pay to chat with a GP or MCHN.

[*Efjay*]

sounds normal if not ahead of the average to me... My 3 & half yr old is only just starting to use sentences (although he does have a significant speech delay), he can not count beyond 3 & only knows the colour pink. So my boy is a year older & way behind your boy by the sounds of things. BUT My boy has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS & has recognised delays.

[Miss E]

Sounds pretty normal to me hun. Try not to stress, my DS can't sit (or stand) still either!

[Calluna]

Cool, thanks ladies
I'm sure my GP thinks I'm seriously paranoid, which is why I wanted to ask here before bringing it up with him. We haven't been for the 2.5yr old check up, so I'll talk to him about his attention span then.

I've tried to get him to slow down but he just gets upset.

I forgot to mention that I'm the only one who can really understand him when he talks, DF can once I tell him what things mean. No-one else seems to have a clue.

[kimbe]

If you are seriously concerned ask your GP for a referal to a paediatrician, don't take a GP's word if their not an infant/child specialist, and if you request it, your GP generally cannot refuse you the referral. Alternatively, a speechy can do a speech screener (very short, quick assessment) to address vocab/language concerns (may be eligible for medicare rebate if supported by a GP referral and health care plan) and/or a psychologist (again one who specialises with infants) can do a miriad of assessments for cognitive, emotional and language skills to rule out things or to support the paediatrician if there is anything of diagnostic concern, plus support you in management plans etc. (oh, and a general rule of thumb is a child should be able to say a minimum of 20 words when aged 2 that the primary cargivers can understand & mother's instincts are usually pretty reliable!). GL

[~Kim~]

My little guy is a mile a minute too and he's 3 next month. He's only just starting to stretch out his attention span a little bit.
At that age his language would have been very similar. No way did he have 20 words at 2, and often DH still needs a translator.