Is 4 too early to tell?

I would see your Pediatrician and ask for a screening test such as the “Denver Developemental Screening Test” (DDST). It gives a quick overview of how your child is developementally. If there is problems, then a referral to an Occupational Therapist would be a good start. Some things, like coordination comes with age but, at the same time, you can be working on some of these problems now (if your child has problems), which will really help your child down the road.

Donna in MO

My son had evaluations done beginning at age 3. Looking back all the things he has had problems with were in those reports. He now is classified as having a specific language disability. Your son certainly has warning signs that I would say would warrant a closer look. Our son was intially evaluated through the school district. You might call and find out the procedures. We were then able to choose from a list of where to take him. He got speech services through a county agency for a couple years as a result. He didn’t qualify for OT as a preschooler but later got it in school.

I also would enroll your child in gymnastic and swimming lessons to help with the coordination. You might also pick the book The Out of Sync Child. It focuses on sensory integration and has lots of good exercises that you could do at home.

Beth

Lack of coordination, inability to form letters, incomplete knowledge of language, and undefined handedness can all be **perfectly normal** in a four-year-old. How much experience do you have with children of this age? You don’t have to have a degree in child psychology — in fact in my experience child psychologists are the worst judges — but you do have to have a reasonable level to base your judgements on. You don’t measure a four-year-old on the same scale as a school-age child. Development at this age is very fast — more happens in six months at this level than in four years of high school; and development is normally uneven, some skills spurting ahead while others develop at different rates. A mother of several children or better yet an experienced grandmother can tell you if anything seems to be unusual. What you are looking for is either an overall weakness — behind in all language skills, for example; or a cluster of weaknesses.
Lack of coordination can come normally with a fast growth spurt and will straighten itself out in this case (ask the mother for more details — has the kid advanced and regressed, a sign of growth and adjustment?), can be a sign of undiagnosed eye problems (has the child had a real eye exam with a genuine ophthamologist, not the guy at the mall?), can be a sign of ear infections or congestion after previous infection or because of allergy (has the child had a serious medical checkup?) —or maybe you’re expecting too much for the age. Check all these out.
Inability to form letters at the age of four is perfectly normal. Regular schooling doesn’t start until age 6, or another 50% beyond this kid’s age. Yes, it’s nice if the child can write early, but it isn’t absolutely required. The level you start worrying at, at age four, is if the kid can’t hold a marker and make marks on paper, refuses to draw, can’t put together preschool puzzles with large pieces, or can’t feed himself with minimal spillage.(Use of spoon — most often still in fist grip — is normal; fork and knife are borderline for age four — some have mastered them and many perfectky normal kids haven’t). By the way, my daughter and I both have hereditary slow-developing coordination; she wrote readably at age seven or so and I at age eight or nine; slowly developing coordination by itslef is just a nuisance, not a major problem.
Lack of defined handedness is also still normal at this age. Handedness may show up before age 1 (it did with my daughter) or may not be defined until age 5 or 6 — all in the normal range. In my personal case, I am still ambidextrous as an adult. It’s a great help in painting odd corners or putting in pesky screws and bolts — just switch the tools to the other hand. I did learn to write and do most work right-handed, simply because it’s easier to go along with the majority. I do not subscribe to the extreme brain-side theories, which go way too far, but the idea of being able to use both sides of your brain and both hands is a good thing, not bad. If no preference shows up naturally, use the right for writing because it’s the majority preference, but otherwise don’t worry about it and work on sports and crafts and othern skills to develop talents on all sides.
Physical activity and being busy all the time are *good* signs in a preschooler — signs of health and intelligence — and necessary to improve that coordination. You worry only if he is destructive or doesn’t concentrate on his *own* projects and interests or won’t sleep at night.
Language is also intensely variable, but is a more dependable guide to mental development. At age four, a child should be using full sentences, should be using some subordinate clauses with “when” and “if” etc., should be able to tell a connected story, should be using a vocabulary of several hundred to thousands of words and should be able to pronounce well enough that a stranger doesn’t need an interpreter. He should also be able to follow instructions and listen to a story or a book for a reasonable length of time. There will be a huge difference between the fourth birthday, when he is just attaining this level, and the fifth birthday, when all this is old hat and he is ready for new developments.

Welcome back Victoria- are you all settled?
Robin

Does your child have much opportunity to interact with other children of the same age? Kids learn a lot from interacting with other children of similar developmental stage. Also seeing a child in a group gives a parent some idea of the range of abilities in other children, as well as a range of behaviors in your own child that only emerge in a group setting. If your child is not getting much social time with other 3-4-5 year olds, consider arranging an informal play group or enrolling him in a few hours of preschool. As mentioned by another, public schools provide screening for preschool age children suspected of having developmental delays.

Yes, I’m back, sort of. My email may be changing soon — look for the name victoria. Settled?? Are you kidding?? Still barely started unpacking the library (3000 books are a joy forever and a moving nightmare).

Glad to hear from anyone who wants to write.

I’m now available for tutoring in reading and advanced math in the Montreal area, if anyone out there is looking.

Hi Victoria,
Welcome to Montreal and a very wet Halloween. We could use PACE in Montreal, as far as I know, no one offers it here. There are a couple of places offering Lindamood and Fastforword, but PACE would be good for those kids with visual and other (non-auditory problems). Do you have an email address where you can be contacted, I may be intrested?

Victoria,

Nice to have you back. I started looking for the Ladybird books you like to no avail. Have found some listed expensive on aution sites. I went to K and 1st grade in Canada and my grandparents lived in Canada. The book names brought back lovely childhood memories to me.

Hope I can find some for my son. Too bad families lose so many nice things that were part of their lives.

Thanks for the notes.

I can still be reached at
[email protected]

This may change soon as American aol thinks the world ends at their border, and Canadian will have a new address %&&%$$#

I was thinking of taking PACE training; however, it’s “one-size fits all” and even qualified teachers have to take the whole thing, at a huge cost in money, time, and travel. So I’m not going to do it until I have a couple of serious students lined up who are going to benefit from all that investment.

Ladybird books are being reprinted, hurray!! Go to Penguin’s website (try the British if no luck on Canadian) and search through. Email me directly and I’ll look it up in my records if you still can’t get there.