Cognitive testing at age 3?

[Dad2Maria]

My 3-yr old daughter has been diagnosed with developmental delays and appears to be

[heggen]

A related discussion, cognitve testing was started.

[heggen]

A related discussion, testing was started.

[TTroop7]

My daughter is also three and seems to be at the same stage your daughter is at. She just started pre school after being with early intervention since she was nine months. She goes to school twice a week for a half day and during those times is taken out for speech therapy for a half hour. No one has ever mentioned that it could be MR. She just has a delay. Especially with talking to other children. She understands but has the same problem with regular puzzles, even though she can do the cut-out ones no prob. I'd say be patient. Let her work with her teachers a while before coming to conclusions.
Tonya

[mom@homenow]

Hi your daughter sounds like my son regarding her "tak(ing) her more time than expected to learn new things, and she is easily frustrated when she first tries to do something new and often gives up after only trying it for a brief period, and is then reluctant to try again later. ... is (it) simply her delayed fine motor skills getting in the way of doing these things."

My son turned 4 in February and has some fine and gross motor delays. He didn't walk til nearly age 2. He did the hand flapping thing until 2.5, he lines toys up all the time and insists they stay that way. One specialist recently said maybe OCD but I'm not sure it isn't just extreme intensity about certain things. He too can't hold sissors right, doesn't color except to scribble and won't even try an interlocking puzzle. He still can't even get a t- shirt on and off himself, just learned to put socks on a few months ago. (He is in OT) He has no cognitive problems whatsoever from anyones perspective, in fact he just tested at a 5 1/2 year old level. He can name and recognize every one of about 100 Thomas the Tank characters, but despite years of Sesame Street etc., preschool, and practicing with mommy, he still can't recognize all of the letters of the alphabet out of order, I think because he really doesn't care! He just doesn't like to practice or focus on anything that doesn't really come naturally to him, doesn't interest him. It's sort of a double whammy consequence of being phsically uncoordinated combined with a type A personality. It can be very frustrating to get him interested in practicing what other kids seem to do naturally, I know how you feel. But I wanted you to know that what you described sounds exactly like him... and for him, it has nothing to do with his mental capacity & everything to do with interest. He won't catch a ball, but can kick one hard and straight where he wants it to go, because he practiced like crazy last summer. He WANTED to.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Your daughter's use of language offers some indication that she is not displaying mental retardation. It would be unusual for someone with retardation to be using 4/5 word sentences and following multi-step directions at such a young age. So that is encouraging. But pre-school children can be tested. She is a bit young at present, and it would be better to wait a bit. The Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (Revised) - WPPSI - is a very useful test and can be administered starting at age four. The testing which was done to prepare the IEP should offer some useful data.