What could be wrong with 5 year old boy?

Question

Here's a brief description...mother will not acknowledge there's a problem. Couldn't say if pediatrician is concerned about anything as she won't discuss it. He is 5, never been to preschool and they are planning on having him in kindergarten this fall.

* Speech patterns of a child about 2-3 years old. NOT talking like a baby to be "cute" like some 5 year olds will do to get attention or be cuddly...does not use connector words or complete sentences.

*Extremely attached to the mother. When he is with a sitter, he will cry for hours on end "where mommy go?" "mommy worky. no mommy worky". No independance outside of her whatsoever. He is generally only happy when she's around...when she's not around he's extremely agitated....looking out windows for her etc. Extreme seperation anxiety?

I don't know if any of this signifies a problem or not, to be honest. Any ideas? I know children develop at different rates, so I could be completely off base and he'll be fine.

Answer 1

THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!!!  SOUNDS LIKE MOM AND DAD MAY NEED SOME PARENTLING CLASSES OR SOME KIND OF HELP.  THIS CHILD HAS BEEN TRAINED TO BE DEPENDENT ON THEM TERRIBLE!!!!  WHEN HE GOES TO SCHOOL THIS WILL BE VERY HARD...NOT JUST FOR HIM BUT OTHER KIDS WHO WILL BE OVERLOOKED BECAUSE OF HIS OUTBURSTS!!!  IF YOU WANT A CHILD TO TALK YOU TEACH HIM... IF YOU CONTINUE TO TALK TO HIM IN A BABY LANGUAGE YOU WILL HAVE A FIVE YEARS OLD TALKING BABY JUST AS THIS CHILD IS....LIFE FOR THIS CHILD WILL BE DIFFICULT THANKS TO PARENTS...GIVE THEM CREDIT.

Answer 2

The anxiety could be reinforced behaviour, but that wouldn't explain the speech delay.

The combination is more of an issue. How does he react to others? Does he make contact or is he withdrawn. Will he play with other kids or not. The problem is that when mom doesn't acknowledge a problem that you can't do much unless you would report it or something and that's taking it a bit too far. It could be a mild form of autism or PDD-NOS, but you need a referral from a peadiatrician to have him tested. Children's developmental centres are also a good alternative, they usually have arranged playgroups that are being watched by professionals and you can ask them questions. They should be ablt to see if something is wrong or "just delayed".

It's good that he goes to KG this fall, if anything is too much out of the ordinary they should pick up on that and they would have more of an way in with the mom...

Hope this helps...

Answer 3

He still wants to be a baby, you have to give him more disipline, and if that doesn't work- reteach him how to do things- potty training, talking, other.

Answer 4

Your right to worry the boy sounds more like a dog that doesn't want its master to leave and go off for work and can't wait till they get home.

It will affect him at school unless it does the opposite and he adjust but the teachers should know or will pick on on this. What an awful way to start a child's life off all clinging to their mum. Maybe the mum likes it and gets off on the fact that her son needs her 24/7 some people are just messed up int he head. Hope you can sort it out if not speak to someone who deals with this sort of stuff like child protection people.

Answer 5

The mommy part is normal but speech, he should and probably will be in speech classes. If I as you, I wouldn't worry about it unless its a sign of becoming deaf. It happened to one of my friends.

Answer 6

Is he the youngest child?

It could be that she doesnt want to let her youngest child grow up so is still treating him like a young baby.

It could create a problem as he gets older and starts going to school as he would not want to be seperated. Have you spoke to his mom about this, if not i think you should talk to her she is really the only person that can do something about it.