Should I seek another speech evaluation? Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is 6 almost 7 and he was/is a lot like that. He answers a lot of question with a quick matter-of-fact answer and doesn't want to say more. I often get "great" when I ask him how his day when, and if I ask what he liked best he says "everything!"

I've noticed he's very precise, he doesn't like to speculate or infer, and he's very literal. If I start asking him questions about what might happen next in a book, he'll say "let's just keep reading and find out!" He doesn't enjoy talking about more abstract ideas, he likes facts. He likes to find out the whys and hows of things. As he gets older, he's able to articulate more complex questions. Like he's very interested in dinosaurs and we recently had a long discussion about evolution because he wanted to know why the Jurassic dinosaurs didn't continue living into the cretaceous age and meet those dinosaurs.

Maybe your boy is the same? I mean, maybe he thinks once he's answered that he likes green and pizza, what more is there to say? You say he can talk a lot about video games and pokemon, maybe he's only talkative on a subject he's really interested in and not just for the sake of talking?

This sounds exactly like my son! He does not enjoy guessing. Anytime I ask him to guess, he says "can you please just give me the answer?" The way you described the reading is exactly how he is as well. He does talk a lot about Pokemon, he can go on and on and on about Pokemon (and Minecraft!), but if grandma asks him what he wants for his birthday, he shrugs and says "a gift". I'm glad to hear that someone else has a boy like this as well. He's not mute, he always answers, he just won't elaborate. I'm going to keep an eye out on him, but this made me feel a bit better PP, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is he playing video games at 5yo? I continue to believe that excessive screen time is the root for many childhood social problems these days.

And yes, I know I’m on a screen now, but I didn’t get them too much when I was a kid! (And I’m young, 33).

Don't listen to this person.

Do listen to that person. A child that young should not be on a screen much, if at all.

How in the world would we be able to attend school or fill up the day if we didn't use any screens? I'm not sure thats feasible, maybe 40 years ago it would have been feasible, but even my husband grew up with screens (although he watched a lot of television). Any conversation that my son does have with his friend is about something that they saw on a screen, like a movie or a video game. We don't have screens during the week, aside from school related stuff, but weekends I just let my son enjoy his time.

[Anonymous]

Could be very mild autism, but if you don't see any problems with how he is functioning in school or at home, I would not bother to get testing.

[Anonymous]

If he talks in social situations that are not familiar to him, he does not have selective mutism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is 6 almost 7 and he was/is a lot like that. He answers a lot of question with a quick matter-of-fact answer and doesn't want to say more. I often get "great" when I ask him how his day when, and if I ask what he liked best he says "everything!"

I've noticed he's very precise, he doesn't like to speculate or infer, and he's very literal. If I start asking him questions about what might happen next in a book, he'll say "let's just keep reading and find out!" He doesn't enjoy talking about more abstract ideas, he likes facts. He likes to find out the whys and hows of things. As he gets older, he's able to articulate more complex questions. Like he's very interested in dinosaurs and we recently had a long discussion about evolution because he wanted to know why the Jurassic dinosaurs didn't continue living into the cretaceous age and meet those dinosaurs.

Maybe your boy is the same? I mean, maybe he thinks once he's answered that he likes green and pizza, what more is there to say? You say he can talk a lot about video games and pokemon, maybe he's only talkative on a subject he's really interested in and not just for the sake of talking?

This sounds exactly like my son! He does not enjoy guessing. Anytime I ask him to guess, he says "can you please just give me the answer?" The way you described the reading is exactly how he is as well. He does talk a lot about Pokemon, he can go on and on and on about Pokemon (and Minecraft!), but if grandma asks him what he wants for his birthday, he shrugs and says "a gift". I'm glad to hear that someone else has a boy like this as well. He's not mute, he always answers, he just won't elaborate. I'm going to keep an eye out on him, but this made me feel a bit better PP, thank you.

Glad I could help a bit. I have also sometimes wondered about my son, but his preferences for talking have become clearer as he gets older and it seems ok. His teachers have not expressed concern. I do try to get him to extend his conversations in a casual way, like if I heard he said "I like green and pizza" I'd say "hmm, that's interesting, I wonder why you picked those things." He used to say "because I like them!" but now I sometimes get more explanation like "well, I was thinking of lunch and pizza is my favorite lunch food because I like cheese and pepperoni." So I try to draw more conversation out of him. And of course now we can talk forever about dinosaurs. I know his teachers try to get him to elaborate more about his ideas at school too; they say they do that with all kids.

He's very different from his older sister, who is always chattering about her ideas and her thoughts about everything under the sun. Kids are all different.

[Anonymous]

You need to have a full neuro-psych eval done by a reputable psychologist. What you describe matches my child exactly at age 5, but sadly, we did not get a professional diagnosis until age 15 (high functioning ASD, formerly known as Asperger’s). You owe it to your child to get the answer now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to have a full neuro-psych eval done by a reputable psychologist. What you describe matches my child exactly at age 5, but sadly, we did not get a professional diagnosis until age 15 (high functioning ASD, formerly known as Asperger’s). You owe it to your child to get the answer now.

Did you ever have any teachers express concern? We have never had anyone express concern about autism, he has always made eye contact, responded to his name and questions, and plays with toys normally. I wondered about Aspergers because we have a nephew with high functioning Aspergers and we heard it can be genetic, but he seems nothing like his cousin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is 6 almost 7 and he was/is a lot like that. He answers a lot of question with a quick matter-of-fact answer and doesn't want to say more. I often get "great" when I ask him how his day when, and if I ask what he liked best he says "everything!"

I've noticed he's very precise, he doesn't like to speculate or infer, and he's very literal. If I start asking him questions about what might happen next in a book, he'll say "let's just keep reading and find out!" He doesn't enjoy talking about more abstract ideas, he likes facts. He likes to find out the whys and hows of things. As he gets older, he's able to articulate more complex questions. Like he's very interested in dinosaurs and we recently had a long discussion about evolution because he wanted to know why the Jurassic dinosaurs didn't continue living into the cretaceous age and meet those dinosaurs.

Maybe your boy is the same? I mean, maybe he thinks once he's answered that he likes green and pizza, what more is there to say? You say he can talk a lot about video games and pokemon, maybe he's only talkative on a subject he's really interested in and not just for the sake of talking?

This sounds exactly like my son! He does not enjoy guessing. Anytime I ask him to guess, he says "can you please just give me the answer?" The way you described the reading is exactly how he is as well. He does talk a lot about Pokemon, he can go on and on and on about Pokemon (and Minecraft!), but if grandma asks him what he wants for his birthday, he shrugs and says "a gift". I'm glad to hear that someone else has a boy like this as well. He's not mute, he always answers, he just won't elaborate. I'm going to keep an eye out on him, but this made me feel a bit better PP, thank you.

Glad I could help a bit. I have also sometimes wondered about my son, but his preferences for talking have become clearer as he gets older and it seems ok. His teachers have not expressed concern. I do try to get him to extend his conversations in a casual way, like if I heard he said "I like green and pizza" I'd say "hmm, that's interesting, I wonder why you picked those things." He used to say "because I like them!" but now I sometimes get more explanation like "well, I was thinking of lunch and pizza is my favorite lunch food because I like cheese and pepperoni." So I try to draw more conversation out of him. And of course now we can talk forever about dinosaurs. I know his teachers try to get him to elaborate more about his ideas at school too; they say they do that with all kids.

He's very different from his older sister, who is always chattering about her ideas and her thoughts about everything under the sun. Kids are all different.

Thanks for this tip! I'm going to try to get him to extend his conversations. Our teachers have never expressed any concern, last year one of his pre-k teachers did mention she thought he was gifted and as he got older and more kids caught up, he would find his tribe. But that's about it in terms of anything regarding his speech, so I wasn't sure how normal it was. Glad to hear your son is getting more chatty and thank you again.

[Anonymous]

You don't need a full neuropsych but you should get an evaluation by and SLP or a developmental ped if you are concerned. A lot of this is not good advice.