The four year olds are talking well and very rarely
mispronounce words. Contact the doctor if most of the words are mispronounced.
The children can go to speech therapy at the local grade school. Contact your
local grade school. The four year old children are starting to write some
letters and some will write their name. They normally will write the letters
backwards and do this even through first grade. This is normal and not
dyslexia. Be sure they are holding the pencil correctly so work on their grip.
Read to them and point to the words as you read. Then they will look at the
words and start memorizing some small words. Also point to the large letters
and name them so they will learn their letters. Keep the television to 2 hours
a day and do not show violent material (obviously). They need time to play and
use their own imagination. Start to play board games and keep it age
appropriate like Candyland, Memory Matching, and Hi Ho Cheerio. Later you can
go to Sorry and Monopoly. Board games will teach them to concentrate, fair
play, how to be a good winner and good loser(us dads have not learned that
yet), counting spaces, reading cards, adding and subtracting money. Also
work on improving the eye hand coordination by using the mazes where you go
from the start to the finish. You have to draw the line in the ally ways and
improve coordination.
The diet is the same as discussed in the last two visits.
Give a balanced diet, 12 oz of milk, and a chewable vitamin (Flintstone). If
they can’t drink milk, then give 500 mg of calcium in the calcium fortified
orange juice, or chewable calcium (caramel Viactin) or give 2 antacids. If they start to not like the vegetables,
grind them up and bake them into other foods they like. Some will eat them raw
and dip them into Ranch dressing, Cheese Wiz, or soak them in the pickle jar.
Grind them up and cook them in pancakes, in the Ragu Spaghetti sauce, or in
the scrambled eggs. There is a book called "Deceptively Delicious" that
has recepies. They are only gaining 4 lbs a year. That is 1 lb every 3
months and we can gain 1 lb in 1 day! So expect them to not eat much and be
picky. Normal!
Vaccines are needed now and the doctor will tell which.
The shot schedule has changed every year so we can’t tell you when the next
one will be or which one. New vaccines are coming out soon.
Most are potty trained and going on the potty now. But
bed wetting can occur into grade school and Jr. High in many kids. See web
page on bed wetting. No guilt trip here, for kid or mom. They are sound
asleep and do not have control over this. Not any more than Dad can stop
snoring. Do not reward a dry morning because if you do and he wets the next
morning, then he feels guilty. So do not punish a wet morning nor reward a
dry morning. It is how deep a sleep he goes into. If they are bedwetting in
school age there is a medication that helps that night only but at this age
there is nothing to do but wait.
Enjoy this year because it is usually the best. I
like 4-6 year olds.
Dr. Knapp
