Delevopment of 3 year old?

[~ElectricPink~]

Hi, just wondering if anyone could please share what stages of development other children children who have just turned 3 are at? How well do they talk? What can they physically do? How well do they count? And how much do they understand?

I'm just curious about what stage my son should be at.... he is speech delayed due to hearing problems, not sure if that has affected other areas of development.

Thanks! :)

[genegeenie]

My little one isnt three until mar 2010, but for reference he is counting to late 20's, talks in long sentences and uses phrases like 'Actually, i think you should have done it this way' or 'I am feeling a bit upset now but i will be happy soon, maybe i am tired'.

He has pretty good empathy; will kiss me better if I hurt myself and tells me when my bub is awake and needs to be picked up. However he is jealous and on the clingy side - he still needs a lot of reassurance in public situations and is easiliy intimidated by other children.

We have just toilet trained succesfully.

All the best with your little man.

[monkeytoes]

Well, DD1 is 6 months older than your DS, but she is delayed in some areas too.

Her speach has always been better than average, but her development delays are in her motor skills (fine and gross) as well as balance and co-ordination. She also has a problem with her close up vision.

It was when DD1 turned 3 that I realised she was behind in these things. I was watching the other kids at playgroup and noticed they could do things that DD couldn't. For example:

*opening doorknobs
*turning on light switches
*turning on a tap
*drawing a circle
*colouring inside the lines of a picture
*balancing on one leg
*doing hand actions to songs (like incy wincy spider etc)
*showing a definate preference for their right or left hand
*dressing/undressing themselves
*sorting objects (like putting all the red blocks together, all the blue ones etc)

My DD can count to 20, we're currently working on 21-25. But I think she may be delayed in this area too. I'm not sure what other 3yr olds can count up to.

My 3yr old understands alot. Maybe if you give me an example I could tell you if DD would understand or not.

Not sure if any of this answers your questions. Feel free to pm me if you want to chat.

[genegeenie]

Physically he is quite adept. Climbing and running and hanging and throwing all day long if he could. When he gets tired he gets clumsy.

[Ffrenchknickers]

My DD just turned 3 :)

She can have proper conversations with us and her brothers and I think her speech is very good for her age compared to others we know. She isn't much of a climber but her brothers were at this age so I guess it depends on the child. She does ballet and gymnastics though so I guess she is quite coordinated. She is learning to hop.

She can count to twentyish and she is starting to write her name (by copying.) She recognises a couple of letters when she sees them.

Hmmm, what else, she has been fully toilet trained for 12 months (night and day) but my boys were only just being day trained at this age.

SHe certainly knows how to dress herself as she goes through about 4 changes of clothes a day simply because she changes her mind!!

[honeydew]

Reading this thread has made me realise even moreso how far behind my DS is to others his age :crying:

He is 3 years + 5 months and can't count AT ALL, has no concept of colours (everything is blue) and can only say a handful of words. He has only just recently started putting 2 words together but they are simple things like 'yes please' etc. He has also regressed with his words- some things he used to say he no longer says and can't even say them if prompted. We see a speech therapist and have an appointment for 2 paedeatricians next year to have this investigated because it's to the stage now where we will be surprised if something isn't 'wrong'.

Physically though, I think he is pretty much on track. He's been able to hold a pencil properly for ages, and he can run, climb, jump, kick and throw a ball, all the usual kids stuff.

He recognises songs and knows the actions to most nursery rhymes, he can dress & undress his bottom half but hasn't figured out shirts yet. He can draw a circle if asked, and has started drawing faces that have bits where they should be- nose, eyes, hair etc. I 'think' he recognises his name in writing but I'm not 100% sure yet.

He can tell when someone is upset and knows how to comfort them. He thinks of others feelings and gets concerned if he's been given the last of the yoghurt and there's none left for his sister etc. He can anticipate something exciting happening, though sometimes struggles to understand 'tomorrow' as opposed to NOW.

He has been fully toilet trained for probably 6 months now, maybe more. If he has an accident (very rare) he knows to take his pants off, put them in the laundry and put some clean ones on.

Hope this helps!

[blissfullybonkers]

TBH I don't really like to compare, i just think kids all develop differently.
DD is almost 3 and she can count to about 15 and say the ABC, recognises her name written down, can't write, and words with the letter 'L' sound more like a 'W', she has proper conversations with just about anyone and answers/asks questions, DD knows her colours & shapes etc.
She is still learning to catch, and pedal a bike properly. She has been a climber since i can remember :hair: constantly getting into things she shouldnt!!!
DD understands emotions, but is still learning to control hers( lots of tantrums at the moment). She has been toilet trained since winter.
That is all i can come up with off the top of my head, I have no idea what the 'average' development for a 3 yr old is meant to be?

[SassyMummy]

At 3, DD was pretty much as she is now at 4, but with a slightly smaller vocabulary.

She spoke really quite well, and always has... it's just an area she's good at. She was good with recognising colours and shapes, and very keen on learning.

Towards the end of age 3, she became more concerned with letters and numbers as well - recognising them and attempting to write them.

She could memorise songs, she had the best memory (and still does... it can be quite a PITA...lol)... BUT she couldn't draw. Everything was simply scribble. No imagination either. You'd ask her what she was drawing, and while a lot of other kids would say their scribble is "a dog," or "Mummy on a boat," or something, DD would go, "I dunno... it's scribble?" and look at me like I was asking a stupid question. :laughing:

She's a very literal child though.

At age 3 she was fairly well toilet trained, but as that year progressed, she obviously got a lot better, and when she was about 3.5 she was fully trained at night as well. This was all her though, as I didn't "train" her to do anything, I just waited until she stopped using her nappies of a night and then just stopped putting them on her.

She wouldn't hold a pencil properly, and only does now at age 4, after a lot of persistance from me. She is very stubborn, and if she can't do something, she will decide that it's not worth ever trying again...

She couldn't ride a bike, but could use a trike with pedals. She could climb and run and jump, but hopping has never been an easy area and still isn't. I suppose it's not the easiest thing to do though, and as DD has problems with her legs, I suppose that's understandable.

Um... I can't think of anything else.

[tootiredtosleep]

My eldest is 3 and can count to 20.

She knows the ABC, but gets stuck on L,M,N sometimes (she thinks we are saying M twice and gets rather cross).

She can name colours and shapes.

She remembers and quotes everything! Gotta watch out there.

She can draw pretty well, faces with hair,eyes and rough bodies.

She is very caring and nuturing with her dolls, and will do role play feeding, bathing etc

She can dress herself, but does get lazy sometimes and wants helps.

She is toilet trained during the day, but not night yet.

She can ride a trike and kinda catch.

She loves to sing and remembers heaps of songs.

Her speech is good, but she can't manage F or S - so its "I've got a dore doot (sore foot) or "Want to ding a dong?" (sing a song).

[MummyLicious]

DD3 has done well in most areas but really really regressed in her speech/pronunciation.

5mths - crawling & feeding herself

6mths - able to climb out of her cot, unclip herself when in the pram...very scary

8.5mths - walking

11mths - sleeping in toddler bed. Able to climb up anything, dress herself

18mths - started toilet training (she started taking nappy off & going to the toilet herself)
Able to take lids off bottles, unclip her carseat

2yrs - decent vocab, able to have basic conversation
We moved so toilet training started all over again

2.5yrs - able to count to 10 in 3 languages, recognise all colours except black & white, shapes, draw people with eyes, ears, beards etc

3yrs - Count to 15, say the alphabet clearly, name shapes & colours, does not recognise letters or numbers. Still wears a night nappy. Some nights she refuses to put one on but i'll only stop altogether when she refuses full-time.

We are a bilingual family so we also speak maori.

DD3 has problems saying 's' & 'th' 'bl'
She loves to talk, is very sociable it's just so hard to see her struggle with her speech.
We very rarely sing the alphabet as I like to make sure each letter is pronounced instead of just 'run over' so to speak.
We have music instruments for the kids to play with, lots of singing & reading in our household.

She speaks with feeling "you made me feel sad, you gave me a fright & I didn't like it, I'm scared, it's not fair, boy pushed me & I cry mummy.
When she's upset she always says....It's not fair, all my life, all my life!!!! then storms off to her room.....???

We do have DD1 who has started talking alot (as in Mum, Dad, sister, Jayda, Kiana, basic stuff).Even though we don't talk to DD1 in 'baby language' I wonder if that's why DD3 has regressed.........?????She'll sometimes 'ramble' off in baby babble which makes me think that maybe she is trying to be cute....like the baby????
She's very loving with her sister. In the morning she'll wake me up to tell me pepi (baby) is awake & needs her nappy changed.

Daycare has contacted a speech therapist for us, waiting list is 4mths long

[~ElectricPink~]

Thanks to all for your replies! I feel a little bit more reassured now :)

In comparison, he does seem to be a fair bit behind in speech and understanding of language, but I guess that should be expected because of his hearing problems.

He has been forming sentences for the past few months, they're starting to get longer, clearer, and more detailed :) Although he still doesnt quite follow everything that I say to him (example- answering yes/no to an open-ended question). Still has a lot of tantrums/meltdowns because he cant communicate properly. He wont answer questions such as "what is your name?" and "how old are you?", and can only follow one part directions. Is near impossible to reason with him, he just doesnt seem to "get" it.

He memorises tunes of songs, but the words are mostly jumble. Is pitch perfect and always has been (which is why glue ear went so long undetected).

He can only count to 10, when he counts objects he gets a little confused if they arent in a straight line (counting some twice lol!) but he will follow directions such as "bring me 4 cars" etc. Starting to recognise some numbers although he often gets them wrong!

He can say the alphabet, although some letters he doesnt quite say clearly. Recognises A, B, C, D, E, O, P, X, L, M, S.

Colours he gets a bit confused with, but most of the time he can recognise basic colours. Always matches his toys by colour!

He is starting to draw faces, can write 'A', 'O' and 'B', but mostly still scribbles.

Anything technical he is a whiz with. Knew how to fully operate a dvd player from the age of 18 months. Figured out how to use a computer mouse at 22 months old, so he has a computer that he plays toddler learning games on. He knows how to start it up, insert the disk, and click on the icon on the desktop. He is also really good at building things, and putting puzzles together. He also has an obsession with batteries :confused: and if a toy goes flat he knows that the batteries need replacing, so he'll swap them with the batteries from something else! (the batteries from my tv remote ALWAYS go missing!!!!). He always studies things and likes to figure out how they work.

He can ride a bike with training wheels, and a 3 wheel scooter.

Has always been good at catching, kicking, and throwing a ball.

Still not toilet trained, he has a lot of accidents still.

Can dress and undress himself, but is too lazy to do so except at inappropriate times (LOL!)