NO Connection- Possible Cognitive Delay??

[daycare]

I have a dcb who is 3.3 years old. Smart little guy and talks very well. However, he is very delayed in making connections when it comes to communication and emotions. He CAN NOT follow simple directions by any means. He can be a sweat child or he can be a little bully. He can have conversations, but 99.9% of the time they don't make any sense.

One example- this morning he told me his mom took him to a parade at the dentist where he got 4 shots in his forehead and neck. I said is that so, and then he said but you can't swim without ear plugs.?????????


another example.....
This morning 2 of my other dcks, same age and this child were put in time out for kicking over someone else block castle. Time out here is very rare, so immediately when I said, the 3 of you have to go to time out, the other two started to cry. This boy just looked lost, kinda smiled and went on his way. Potty training this kid has been a nightmare, and it just really seems like he is cognitively delayed.

What can I do to help sculpt this lost connection??

[e.j.]

I may be way off base but the conversation you describe brought echolalia to mind. That and the fact that he isn't making connections when it comes to emotions/communication, can't follow directions.... raises the possibility of autism to me. In any event, I'd be pushing his parents to get an evaluation done asap.

In the meantime, I'd be trying to make as many connections for him as possible. If there is something he doesn't seem to "get", I'd explain it to him in detail to help him understand. Hopefully, once the eval is complete, you'll have a better idea of what is causing his behavior and how to help him.

[daycare]

I have had autistic kids and have a nice with echolalia, I don't think that it is either. He just seems delayed. I had a DCK like this in the past. He reminds me of him to the T and there was NOTHING wrong with this child...just delayed....

[Evansmom]

I had a little DCG just like this. She would ramble the weirdest stuff. I even ended up writing some of it down and sending it to my friends who has a child development/speech pathology back ground because it was so super strange. It ended up being nothing I guess because as she got closer to age 4 she started making more sense. But before that she was taking English words, but together the didn't make any sense and there was no topic ever. And responses were never on topic and didn't make sense.

Anyway, sorry I don't have any advice. My speech pathology friend didn't have a clue either and of course couldn't diagnose from recorded conversations. But there were no other red flags for other disorders. Just that weird, incoherent talking.

Hopefully your DCK will pass through this phase quickly!

[Heidi]

Maybe he just has a really creative mind. One of those "out of the box" thinkers, but he's not old enough to put it all together yet.