I have a dck who has been with me for about 6 months. age 3.5. Super sweet little girl. talks well, but something about her has me and all of my staff puzzled.

about a three weeks ago this started where she is very unresponsive to very simple tasks. The child is not being defiant, just will look at you with a stare and not doing what is asked. Like put your shoes on, she just stands there and will stare at you. Today we must have asked her about 10 times lets get shoes and line up. She sat down put her shoes on and then lined up. I asked her to take the shoes off inside and wait until we got to the porch like always and put them on there. she took the shoes off and put them back in her cubby box then just sat there.

I asked her please go get your shoes and line up, she again puts her shoes on.

When I get frustrated I sing, so I starting singing to hide my frustrations and walked over, took of her shoes, took her hand and helped her line up. I told her, looks like you need my help. I do it all in song. I know, I am weird, but it's what I do to stay calm.

This happens all day long. with everthing and it is getting worse. I don't think it is sleep related, the child sleeps from 8pm to 7am at home and naps here too...

I don't even know what to do with this situation or even how to explain it to the parent.

Help anyone deal with this before? Please tell me it gets better

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Is this during large group transitions or just random?
It almost sounds like she is distracted over over stimulated and not hearing beyond the first few words, if at all.

If I were in your shoes, I'd observe her for at least the next 2 weeks. I'd do LOTS of documenting.

Find out what is happening WHILE she is spacing off and not following directions. Are there too many other kids making the same transition at the same time? Is there a bunch of other things going on? Is she watching someone else and just being distracted? Has she complied easily and fully before so that this is new behavior for her?

I wouldn't absolutely rule out sleep just because of the time frame in which her parents tell you she sleeps. They could be lying and/or the child may be sleeping but not necessarily sleeping well. Restless sleep isn't really restorative.

Observation for a pretty decent amount of time across and entire day usually reveals the answers, so I'd start documenting anything and everything and see what the picture shapes up to be....

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Maybe a hearing problem?

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Completely agree with observing and documenting.

This is my daughter to a T. She gets highly distracted by too many details, too much chaos and noise and a big part of me is wondering about ADHD although her teachers have not metioned anything to me. She is highly imaginative and loves to daydream. I lovingly refer to her as my "space cadet"

Maybe if you told her what to do in smaller steps or used pictures (if it is part of the routine) that might help. At around this age imagination and daydreaming starts so if she is a very intelligent, imaginative 3.5 yr old that could be playing into it.

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it happens even during one on one. today she said can I go potty. yes of course I sAY and she stands there and looks at me for a few minutes . When I see she is not moving to go towards the toilet I finally tell her lets go potty. I take her to the bathroom and she just stares at me then pees all over the floor.

I ask did you just pee and she says yes, i clean her up and change like no big deal, while in the bathroom I tell her lets go back and sit at the table it's time to eat. But she just stands and stares at me lots. I say go sit down with a high five, just takes 3 steps out of the bathroom and stands there as if she is lost. she is always lost.

It almost comes across like she is not processing.

I do document everything that has happened and will continue to do so. The parent is awesome and said should we have an eval. I told her it's up to her, and told her that I was observing and documenting here.

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Ok that sounds much more serious, could it be seizures? Definitely not normal and I would encourage a visit to a neurologist.

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My thoughts exactly! I have a little one with Dravet's syndrome. That is exactly what made everyone concerned... the spacing off were actually mini-seizures happening multiple times a day

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I just found out that the older sibling has a processing disorder.......

I am going to ask dcm to follow it up with doctor today based on your guys responses.

thanks ladies. Trust me I am a little freaked out right now. I have never seen her do this before and it really made me sad to see her just act so checked out....

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OMG I am reading about that BC, that is so scary and sad.

she did have a major speech delay and was with an SP prior to starting my program. She is still alitlte hard to understand, but not too bad. We do have to ask her to repeat what she says from time to time, but nothing to raise and eye-brow over.

I really hope that it's not what your kid has.

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I was going to suggest seizures as well. I had a little just like this, I just thought he didn't get it and might need special services. At 4yo he was diagnosed with irreversible epilepsy. He has seizures a lot. When I found out it all made sense. The staring off into space and not following simple directions..

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I was also thinking seizures. I had them for a few years in my teens. Got a mess in my brain that caused petit mal epilepsy. That means my seizures were like hers. I was just dazed and teachers thought I was daydreaming, except they couldn't wake me out of them. They had to wait it out. After a few times, I went to a doc and found out I had epilepsy and went on meds, then had brain surgery a few years later because a blood clot in my head causing it was growing. After the surgery, my epilepsy disappeared.

She definitely needs to be examined because if it is seizures, it could be from something where time is important.

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aweeee... hugs to you for having to go throught all of that. myheart goes out to you. thank you for sharing that with me. I have talked to the mom and she is a little freaked out about it as well, so she is calling the doctor.

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Thanks. The surgery is something I would never do again. I won't go into detail, but they had to keep me awake for the first part, so they had to give me 21 needles to freeze the area they were opening. I felt each one and counted them. Then I could hear them opening me up. I'm glad the operation fixed my problem, but I had nightmares for months after.

There are many different possible causes for seizures, so if that's what she's having, I hope and pray it's something they can take care of easily.

Something funny...
The very first seizure I know about was in school while the teacher was writing stuff on the board for us to copy. I didn't know I had a seizure, but that night at home, I was studying what I wrote and I had about half a page of gibberish. I must have had a seizure and just kept "writing" and then went back to normal and never even realised it. I had to get that part of the notes from a friend the next day. I had no idea what happened. It was a bit later when I found out what was happening to me.

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Wow! That is such an amazing story. Thank you for sharing Mike. You just never know what some people have to go through in their life.

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That's nothing compared to the abuse that many people go through, even many of the members here. I'm just glad brain surgery was around in the early 80's. If not, I wouldn't be here today. Not everyone with epilepsy is as lucky though.

I was roommates with another guy who had grand mal epilepsy. His seizures were violent, out of control, body movements. He had to be strapped in bed for his own safety. He had surgery too, but it didn't work for him.

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