How to Deal with 3yo DD's Overexcitability

567 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Ash&Clays_Mom, Apr 6, 2006

Ash&Clays_Mom

Discussion Starter · Apr 5, 2006

I'm so at a loss about this and not quite sure how to handle it. Our 3yo DD has always been quite spirited. However what we once looked upon as a wonderful part of her personality is creating problems and has me worried about the future. Our DD is in speech therapy which requires her to sit and interact with the therapist. Everything started off smoothly but now DD spends the entire session literally bouncing off the walls. She's constantly grabbing at the therapist's papers, her pen, the cards, she's playing in the blinds, jumping up and down, running around. The therapist is concerned because it's hard for her to determine how much DD is retaining from previous sessions because she can't interact with her. When DD is in her excitable zone it's almost as if you can't get through to her. It takes quite a bit to get her to calm down once she's in that zone. At home she normally gets that way when DH comes home from work but no other time. We mostly see this at speech therapy and her gym class - more structured situations. We go back and forth in our heads trying to determine if this is really just her personality, if it's a 3yo thing, if she has sensory issues??? The speech therapist doesn't think it's sensory related but says DD is definitely more high energy than most of the 3yo's she sees.

What do we do? How do we help our DD? Part of me feels terrible for struggling to love and accept this aspect of DD's personality. But the other part of me worries about what will happen when she's older and in school. I just feel like there's something we're missing. Something we could do to help DD manage her "energy" without forcing her to change.

Thanks for your input

Mary

Ashleigh Nicole 1-17-03 & Clayton Matthew 1-31-05

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sunnysideup

· #2 · Apr 5, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash&Clays_Mom
Our DD is in speech therapy which requires her to sit and interact with the therapist. Everything started off smoothly but now DD spends the entire session literally bouncing off the walls. She's constantly grabbing at the therapist's papers, her pen, the cards, she's playing in the blinds, jumping up and down, running around.

Maybe she's bored? Many, many 3yos do not do well with structured activities. When my oldest dd was 3yo she got kicked out of ballet class. It seemed she thought learning first position was boring, all she wanted to do was touch the tu-tus and look in the mirror.

It might be helpful to help your daughter work off her energy before the therapist sessions. Spend an hour running around the park or something. Another idea might be to find a therapist who is more hands-on activity based. Not all speech therapists require a three year-old to sit still for the therapy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash&Clays_Mom
Part of me feels terrible for struggling to love and accept this aspect of DD's personality. But the other part of me worries about what will happen when she's older and in school. I just feel like there's something we're missing. Something we could do to help DD manage her "energy" without forcing her to change.

Your daughter's behavior does not sound abnormal for a three year-old to me. Most likely, her ability to focus will improve a lot by the time she is school-age. At this point it might be helpful to give her lots of opportunities to work off her energy, and to respect the level of structure she can handle.

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Twocoolboys

· #3 · Apr 6, 2006

My question to you is what time of day is she working with the therapist? My almost two year old son actually gets more hyper and overexcited when he is tired. He doesn't get weepy and have tantrums like a lot of tired kids do. Maybe moving the sessions to a different time of day would help.

Also, what is she eating before the sessions, if anything? Make sure she has something with some protien in it and no sugar. Maybe a peanut butter apple (with natural pb) or turkey bacon or eggs, etc. My oldest always performs better at school when he has a little protien with breakfast.

Just some things to think about...

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4evermom

· #4 · Apr 6, 2006

With my ds, the more controlling an environment or person is, the crazier he acts. In the situation that you described, he probably would have been great the first couple of times but then would have been over the experience and stopped cooperating. Is the therapist playful or trying to stick to business? A different therapist might get better results just from having a different interaction style. My ds was always amazingly opinionated about who he would interact with. If he decided he wasn't going to interact with someone, it was just a complete waste of time to try.

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Ladybug Mama

· #5 · Apr 6, 2006

My 3 yr. old dd is exactly like this. She likes to be busy, busy, busy! She runs around and does what she calls "projects" and "trips" all day long. I can't even imagine her in speech therapy! She would be bouncing off the walls too from complete boredom! I think your ds is bored and you may need a new therapist who can capture an energetic 3 yr. old's attention, or would it be possible to hold off on the therapy for a bit? A wiser Mom than me told me that they calm down considerably the closer they get to 4. Gosh, I sure hope she's right!

Ladybug Mama to two beautiful girls, (3 yrs. & 18 mos.), and wife to crazy freefalling DH.Seasons of Cosleeping:
...dd1 ... dd2 ... me with both ... me with dd2 ... dh with dd1

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Ash&Clays_Mom

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 6, 2006

Thanks for the input ladies! DD goes to speech therapy twice a week - Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. The behavior is normally the same regardless the time of day. The speech therapist actually has been really patient with DD but is becoming a little frustrated because she's not sure if any progress is being made and doesn't know what other approach to take.

Mary

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