I have a 6 year old like this. She is a gymnast and can do a handstand on a balance beam but can walk down the three steps from gymnastics to the car without falling. In our case it's not clumsiness exactly but rather a lack of attention. She can absolutely handle any physical task requiring coordination, if she focuses but in her daily life she doesn't pay attention to her surroundings and what she is doing. I suspect some ADHD, inattentive type.

I assisted at a coop pre-school for a couple of years, and at least a third of the 3 year old boys were like this.

This sounds like my kid. He is just excited and hasty. At 5 it’s gotten better and he’s no longer sporting bumps and bruises every day, but he still doesn’t always look ahead of him as he runs and he jumps and twists around needlessly sometimes, eg off a stoop/stair and falls. He’s not even a hyper or especially loud kid… just gets excited.

OP this is so funny you posted this. My DS who is 4 is exactly like this. He's incredibly athletic and his coordination is fantastic, but he like, falls off his chair at the dinner table kind of often, and he's broken multiple bones already in his short life

Anonymous wrote:Are you maybe less vigilant with him because he’s your third? Could he just be getting more freedom to practice moving around, which explains both his skill level and his more frequent injury? I would step up the supervision and help him think through what he’s doing by maybe acting out safer ways to do things. Given that he doesn’t like pain he might be responsive to a learning approach. Like “notice this bar, and notice where your head is.”

He definitely gets some less supervision at times but he still gets a lot of 1:1 adult time and the same is true then. No matter the reminders and teaching he is constantly distracted while running outside and runs straight into things even with me right there, paying full attention saying “eyes ahead! Tree!

Are you maybe less vigilant with him because he’s your third? Could he just be getting more freedom to practice moving around, which explains both his skill level and his more frequent injury? I would step up the supervision and help him think through what he’s doing by maybe acting out safer ways to do things. Given that he doesn’t like pain he might be responsive to a learning approach. Like “notice this bar, and notice where your head is.”

Have you had his eyes checked? If he's misjudging distances because of vision issues, that could account for some of this.

teach him*

^^^ETA Make sure to reach him to ALWAYS holds the rail going up and down stairs. You don’t want to have a dangerous fall.

My ds was in PT and I remember a discussion we had about him not knowing where he was in space. She did therapies to help with this although I don’t recall what they were specifically.

Anonymous wrote:Did he have a lot of ear infections as a baby?

He doesn't seem to grasp his spatial awareness- "gee, I'd better keep my head low while I'm ducking trying to get out from under the table" doesn't cross his mind?
Or "my mega jump im about to attempt down the steps might land me too close to the wall below".

Not sure if he had a lot as a baby (he was a very fussy baby so he could have had them without us noticing) but as a toddler he has a ton. Currently has one actually which is why we are headed to the ENT

Did he have a lot of ear infections as a baby?

He doesn't seem to grasp his spatial awareness- "gee, I'd better keep my head low while I'm ducking trying to get out from under the table" doesn't cross his mind?
Or "my mega jump im about to attempt down the steps might land me too close to the wall below".

Not sure about the diagnosis, but the things he's good at are all heavily dependent on hand eye coordination. They involve physical skills and coordination, which is why it seems odd that he'd be so good at them. It is, however, a very different skill subset than running into things.

Curious if anyone else has experience with it and if they outgrew it eventually or were diagnosed with anything

My just turned 3 year old can throw, catch, kick, and shoot baskets far better than most 3yos - he’s my 3rd boy, I have a realistic barometer for this and my other 2 aren’t this way. He can also climb and run well

Yes he bumps his head on the edge of our kitchen island, slips on the stairs, falls out of his climbing up it, runs straight into walls bc he’s looking behind him, trips over things on the floor etc etc several times a day. He’s constantly covered in bruises and has goose eggs on his head regularly. He doesn’t seem to learn how to pay more attention (look ahead while running), protect his body (don’t do weird jump steps on the stairs!), or even seem to learn to watch out for the same thing he bumps into regularly. Each time he’s hurt he melts down so he definitely doesn’t have a bizarrely high pain tolerance or anything

It drives me crazy that he’s hurt all the time doing dumb things and doesn’t seem to be learning. And it’s not even things I can prevent (like climbing up too high at a playground)…it’s literally running into walls in our house

I’m currently getting an ENT, OT, and PT eval for him at the suggestion of my other sons OT. I’ve had his eyes checked and they’re find. He could just be wild and careless and have no bigger issues. I’m bizarrely hoping there is an issue so we can do something about it bc it gets so annoying

Just curious how this played out for others