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 Toddler & Preschool | Emotional Well-Being
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AUTHOR: LivvysMomDATE: 03/25/02 6:35pm
SUBJECT: Re: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
IN REPLY TO: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
AUTHOR: GKelly9787
I saw that another mom said something about short attention spans and ADHD...Please don't jump to the conclusion that just because your preschooler has a hard time looking you right in the eye means he has ADHD or even that something is wrong with him. Maybe he's feeling ashamed about what you're talking about (perhaps an accident or something) or maybe he's trying to frustrate you - three-year olds are realizing that they have some control over their environment and "teasing" Mom and Dad can be a great control game. My advice would be to just be consistant with him - let him know again and again that eye contact is very important to you and your family. He'll learn. I'm going through the same thing with my daughter who's 2 1/2 and she's working very hard at it now.

As far as the preschooler's attention span...if you want to lengthen it - just find things (other than TV, movies and video games) that he's really interested in - stretch the length of the activity every time you do it by just a bit -

It's so sad to me that so many parents, doctors and teachers box kids into this ADHD world and medicate them so they don't act like children anymore.
MESSAGES
3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
GKelly978712/16/01 10:28pm
Re: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
oldiemom01/15/02 11:41am
Re: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
LivvysMom03/25/02 06:35pm
      Re: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
Jessi's Mommy05/01/03 12:57pm
      Re: 3 1/2 year old cannot maintain eye contact
Grandmaperson07/10/03 09:34pm
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