17 Month Old Won't Pay Attention or Follow Instructions
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Anonymous
| Sounds like a typical "actuve" boy. I have two of them. It can be isolating. My advice would be to stop going to library story time. Get him involved in classes that get him moving. Little Gym, gymnastics, swimming, Gymboree, JW tumbles. Whatever you have near you. |
Anonymous
| He's definitely paying attention -- he's just not doing what you want him to do. Totally normal! |
Anonymous
LOL, this. |
Anonymous
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i would find some other activities that he can express himself -- like tumbling or running around outside ..
he sounds super high energy also, you may want to have his ped just check his hearing if you are super concerned .... but fwiw at 2 yo my toddler was darting off when i told him to stop running. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, this is the age where they start to realize they can do what *they* want instead of what *you* want. Totally normal! |
Anonymous
Totally this. Find activities that will burn energy for him. Library story time may not be the best choice for him. |
Anonymous
This is my 16 month old DD. She has an expressive language delay so we're struggling with communication on top of the high energy, but if it's just the high energy for your son, I wouldn't be concerned. I would just be exhausted. Which I'm sure you are 
I just try to keep things in perspective. At least they're happy and healthy. |
Anonymous
| He sounds like a textbook toddler. |
Anonymous
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You are concerned b/c you need to educate yourself.
Read TouchPoints. Please parent responsibly. |
Anonymous
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You need to develop some parenting tactics ASAP. Read all you can in the next 4 weeks about positive discipline and toddler development and limit setting. It sounds like you have an active little guy, so you really need a plan of attack.
How is your house set up? He seems like the type who would do well with a big, safe enclosed space to roam around freely. |
Anonymous
He sounds more active than average - and I don't say this because I think there is any developmental issue - but because it helps to acknowledge reality and adjust tactics! |
Anonymous
Are there any books you would recommend? Our house is 3 stories but we mostly spend time on the middle floor which is open concept floor plan, he has pretty much free range to go wherever he likes, I very rarely say "no" to him when it comes to running around the house. he knows how to get off the couch himself so I let him climb on it and we padded the corners of our coffee table so if he wants to climb on that, it's pretty much fine. He knows how to get up and down the stairs by himself too and though we do have baby gates, I sometimes leave our bottom one open if I'm in the kitchen and he knows to stop at the landing. He isn't going around flinging himself off of things haphazardly and he won't really go off on his own to play by himself in the living room, when we are home he tends to hang out with us in the room we are in. |
Anonymous
Thanks, I will check out that book. I will admit I'm the soft type of parent, I love my son very much and he's really not a bad kid, so I don't think I've ever raised my voice at him and I rarely say no. I mean, we can go out to restaurant and have a meal with him, he's traveled on an airplane 4 times already and it wasn't too bad, I don't worry he's going to have a meltdown in the middle of Target (and if he starts getting cranky he's easily distracted by something pulled off of the shelf and than handed back to the cashier). I think that because he doesn't throw tantrums and is easily distracted away from what he's doing, I've let some other bad behaviors go. |
Anonymous
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He sounds like my son. Don't compare him to girls, most girls are less physical at this age which makes your son look even more active in comparison.
We tried music class when he was about your sons age. He would run around the class while the other kids sat in their parents laps. We switched to swimming. |
Anonymous
What are some of the symptoms that your daughter is displaying when it comes to expressive language, if you don't mind me asking. I'm wondering if that's an issue in our case. I can say "hand mommy xxxxx" and he will ignore me. But than I'll say "go find daddy" and he will run off into the other room shrieking "tata!!" Or I'll say "please sit down" and he will only listen like 50% of the time. He has randomly started mimicking words in the last 2 weeks or so, but he's still not pointing out "cow" or a similiar animal (except for dog) if I ask so I feel like maybe he's not understanding what he is saying when he will repeat "duck" or giraffe" after us. He also won't imitate animal sounds, although we practice every day. We try to read for about .5-1 hour a day (broken up into increments) and he will watch my face as I read but that's it in terms of participation. He claps, points, looks in the direction of where I'm pointing, high fives, generally does well in responding to his name, but his verbal abilities are limited to mama, tata, baba (bottle), up-up, didi (doggie), book and mostly screeches/shrieks/squeals when babbling. He points and says "dododo" and "agoo" or "poo" most of the time for everything else. |