My son attends a preschool for speech delayed kids 4 days a week. In the past 7months he has made "phemonenal" progress and is "above average in speech" according to his speech therapist. He is talking in LONG full senetences, asks questions appropraitely, answers questions appropriately, etc. He is doing AWESOME! So happy!
One question I have is the following. My son often says phrases that aren't related to the current situation. For example, he will say "i have a red bike" while we are getting dressed and talking about what he is wearing. Or if we are sitting at dinner and talking about cars he will say "the doggy was playing ball at the park". Or, he will say "at the dentist I got a blue toothbrush" when talking about what we will eat for lunch. He makes comments/statements that ARE relavent to the current situation about 60% of the time. But the other 40% of the time.....I feel like he is just saying random stuff he is thinkng about. I always acknowledge what he says and reorient him to what we are talking about. I repeat myself, and tell him to listen.....and after I do that, he will make relavent statements.
I think I remember a little boy i used to baby sit doing this. BUt not sure.
I know that back when he started speech therapy they told us the first goal was to get him to talk more/add words. now he talks really well, and he talks a lot. Just sometimes he is tlaking about random stuff. Let me know what you think.
My 3.5 year old came up to me today and said, "I got a blueberry for a daughter!" -from Willy Wonka, lol. Kids say random things. She also told me today that she is ready to get her jammies on because she's ready to dream about airplanes and that her blankie is ready to dream about pillows. Lol. Don't worry about it. Kids are always so random!
I get the feeling that kids this age will make connections and just comment on them no matter what the situation. I think that we all do this (something will jog our memories on something out of nowhere), but as we get older, we just don't really notice and don't comment, but, as you know, kids have NO filter on what they say LOL. My 2.5 YO makes comments like that which to us seem out of the blue, but to her have some tangential connection to something she is seeing or hearing. She's especially known to start singing sporadically (even at my grandfather's funeral - which was a beautiful moment BTW...) and sometimes she'll wake up with a random thought. She'll open her eyes and the first thing out of her mouth will be something like, "You flushed the stinkbug but it came back."
So glad your little guy is doing such an awesome job!
Coming up with random thoughts is age appropriate for a 3.5 year old. That is something I love about that age group. It always keeps the conversation interesting because you never know where they may take you. Enjoy your little conversations with all that side roads. You will miss them someday.
Are the things he is saying true, or just phrases he is learning at school? If they are true, then he is just day dreaming. ALL kids do this, especially boys. Don't get frustrated at such a young age. Bring him back to your topic, but then go back to his topic and give value to his thoughts and the things that are important to him.
If they AREN'T true, help him determine he difference in the phrases he is learning for speech vs. the fact that what you are talking about are things that really are happening.
We have a 3.5 year old and my husband and I have a saying that we're fond of. Usually, at the kitchen table when we're talking about our day, Sam will say something like, "I liked the blue shirt better." My husband will freeze and say in his best radio announcer voice, "This stream of conciousness brought to you by age three!"
I think it's totally normal. At least in our house.
I have no expertise other than a mom of twin just-turned-4-years-old boys. I giggled a bit being reminded of one of mind. I think their mind is just working so fast, they don't work on our same wavelength. The red bike comment while you are getting dressed may be because his socks are red. The doggy playing with the ball is a recount of his day while you are talking about your day at dinner.
I don't see anything wrong with it, but of course trust your instincts if you feel there is something wrong.
random is part of this age group! Long-term recall also kicks in around 4, too. It's amazing what they can remember! In my daycare, one of the little girls (age 3) recently said, "you have blood where you got your shot?" She was referencing my bloodwork & flu shot from last October! Took me forever to decipher her conversation & where it came from......
Let him talk...it's what you've worked so hard to achieve!
my son is also speech delayed and does random things like that too. He doesn't use full sentences yet but will say stuff like whats that,whos there. and stuff totally off the wall but his are only 2 word sentences. he is constantly saying "there he is" cause we play peek a boo alot. Instead of correcting him which is going to think he is constantly doing wrong I would respond yes you have a pretty red bike. or "The dentist gave you a blue tooth brush to brush your teeth with" Who cares if he is in his own little world having his own conversation as long as he is talking. That is my outlook with my speech delayed son.
But mine is also hearing impaired so I amke a huge issue out of any new words. Like him saying shoes for 4 hrs I was thinking ok so you know the word shoes go to the next word. But what I told him is "yes those are daddys shoes" or "Those are mamas shoes" or "woody doesn;t have shoes on he has boots on" Which got me the response ""shoes" and a dumb look like mama don't you know what shoes are.
