Me and my wife are trying to adopt a 4 and a half little girl.
We are taking the adoption process step by step, we have seen the child
in home of the foster family and today we spent almost 6 hours just us and
her.
What we observed is that she cannot focus on a task for more then 5 minutes, whether
it is coloring books, drawing, playing with dolls or almost anything else.
She starts playing with something and in a few minutes she says "Let's go outside
at the playground.", she wants to change the TV cartoon channel, or play with something else.
She chooses 2 different games to play with in the same time, and if we tell her
it is better to play with just one, she refuses.
The only thing that managed to keep her focused for more then 5 minutes is
putting stickers on other toys.
At the foster home where she lives now, we observed her alone and some activities
seem to keep her more focused (puzzles, for example). With other kids (the foster
family has 2 natural childred, boys), she likes to get involved in group
activities (puzzles again), but not every time: she was bored and protesting
when we tried to read them a children story, while the 2 boys were very interested
and attentive.
My question for other parents with a child of the same age is: is this normal
for a 4 and a half year old? I read a lot of stuff on the Internet, I realize
that expecting a child of such age to be focused for more then 10 to 15 minutes
is totally unrealistic, that it is different when alone versus playing with other
kids, that it depends on how interested she is in what she is playing with and
so on.
But I would like hear about other kids of this age from their parents.
Thank you for your answers.
P.S.: We are not living in the US, my English might have said that already .
We are taking the adoption process step by step, we have seen the child
in home of the foster family and today we spent almost 6 hours just us and
her.
What we observed is that she cannot focus on a task for more then 5 minutes, whether
it is coloring books, drawing, playing with dolls or almost anything else.
She starts playing with something and in a few minutes she says "Let's go outside
at the playground.", she wants to change the TV cartoon channel, or play with something else.
She chooses 2 different games to play with in the same time, and if we tell her
it is better to play with just one, she refuses.
The only thing that managed to keep her focused for more then 5 minutes is
putting stickers on other toys.
At the foster home where she lives now, we observed her alone and some activities
seem to keep her more focused (puzzles, for example). With other kids (the foster
family has 2 natural childred, boys), she likes to get involved in group
activities (puzzles again), but not every time: she was bored and protesting
when we tried to read them a children story, while the 2 boys were very interested
and attentive.
My question for other parents with a child of the same age is: is this normal
for a 4 and a half year old? I read a lot of stuff on the Internet, I realize
that expecting a child of such age to be focused for more then 10 to 15 minutes
is totally unrealistic, that it is different when alone versus playing with other
kids, that it depends on how interested she is in what she is playing with and
so on.
But I would like hear about other kids of this age from their parents.
Thank you for your answers.
P.S.: We are not living in the US, my English might have said that already .