my 5 yr old does not respond if u call him.

[agnel13]

I have a problem with my 5 yr old son he does not tend to respond if we call him.But he does not seem to have any problem with his hearing .During other times he responds to questions when we have a conversation with him.the only problem is if he is playing or watching TV he does not respond immideatly it takes a while for him to respond.sometimes When in a group he wants to play by himself he does like to play with other children if it does not intrest him.He does not follow instructions given by the teacher when in a group and continues  to do what he likes to.Pleaseadvice me as to how i handel this situation with my child

[specialmom]

Hi,  one thing to look into is auditory processing difficulty.  If this is not working quite right and just a little bit off, a child will have trouble with the things you describe.  My son has some issue with this.  Occupational therapy works to correct it.  A good site to look into is one called SensoryProcessingDisorder.  It really explains it all and go to auditory processing from there.

I have two boys.  One can ignore me when he is quite 'into' something.  But when you add in the lack of being able to follow directions and his play skills, it could be more.  

My other son has a little bit more going on.  To me there is a difference in my distracted son and my son with auditory processing issues.  If I tell my distracted son to do something but he ignores me for a few minutes, when he does respond, he gets up and does what I asked him to do.  My auditory processing kid will look at me blankly as he really didn't hear what I said.

A common auditory processing issue is that these kids/adults don't hold other sound back.  So if in class, the breathing of the child next to him sounds as loud as the teachers voice.  We hold the unnecessary sound back while they don't.  So, they can't follow directions because the volume of everything is the same.  And when watching a program that they are interested in, your voice will not rise above the sound of the program because volumes are the same.  The opposite end of auditory processing issues is when a loud noise disturbs a child so much that they can't shake it off.  They cry, cover their ears, etc.  That is what people more commonly think of with auditory processing but the other end of things is actually more difficult for a child in school.    

Many with this issue can resolve it.  good luck

[margypops]

This is a common behavior children do seem to tune out when they are busy and the best way is to walk over and turn off the TV then speak to him, or when he is playing go up to him and use eye contact to say what you want .Do not raise your voice, be patient, it isnt only children who do this when they are focused husbands do it aswell .

[ku111]

Rule out a hearing problem.  Children learn at a young age to read lips and may have a degree of hearing loss.  If you are behind him and you clap your hands, would he respond by looking back at you?  This may be something else completely but our son did this also and we had tubes put in his ears because ear infections had done some damage.  I could not believe the difference.  Just a suggestion.  I wish you the best!