So this year’s regression totally caught us off-guard. Now, it shouldn’t have since CB’s other major regressions were during the same time of year when he was 2 and 3. I think since we did not see the regression around his 4th birthday, we were hoping we wouldn’t see anymore. Pretty pie in the sky kind of hoping on our part… I think the reality is that we didn’t see around his 4th birthday it b/c we made the huge diet and supplement changes during his usual regression time last year so his body was already going through some major changes. It either masked the regression or his body had to cope with so many other changes, it didn’t even have time to work on a regression.
CB’s regression time is Dec/Jan. His birthday is in January so I don’t know if it is connected to this, adjusting to being on winter break, adjusting to starting back up at pre-k/mother’s day out, the change of schedule during the break, or the combination of all of it. This regression felt quite significant and impacted every part of his life. He hit, kicked, spit, and threw things at friends, parents, therapists, and teachers. His impulsiveness and compulsiveness grew. It seemed like he was on auto-pilot (like when he was younger). He had to have whatever toy his friend or brother had. He had a really hard time being redirected and would just focus on that toy till he got it. Once he got it, he then wanted whatever new toy his friend or brother now possessed. Also, once he started an action, we couldn’t get him to stop midway and make a different decision. For example, if he was running towards his brother to hit him, I could not get through to him to stop unless I physically was there to stop it. Let me tell you, this has been a fun few past few weeks ;). Due to his speech disorder, he has always been more physical since he was not able to communicate his needs/desires in a different manner; however, using his body to communicate in a negative way has been declining considerably as his speech capabilities have been improving. He also started perseverating on specific words. He would definitely say them at times to get attention but he also would say them when he walked into a room, during quiet times, during transition times, walking around, sitting by himself in another room, ok, basically anytime he was awake. He would sometimes say them one time but often he would say them over and over up to 5-10 times. They were lovely words/phrases to say too, like “bad boy”, “poo poo butt”, “stupid”, “stupid boy”, “you’re stupid”, “you’re a stupid boy”, “your’re a bad boy”. I guess I should be glad he was throwing some sentences in there :). I understand that 4 and 5 year olds get a huge kick out of these words, but it isn’t so much fun when your child walks up to another child and says “bad boy, bad boy, bad boy”. It also caused great concern for any caregiver (parent and teacher alike) feeling a need to explain to others that he didn’t hear the phrase “bad boy” from them. See, here I go giving the justification for how the phrase was formed…he pulled the “bad” from when we called the pirates “bad pirates” during the The Pirate Fairy movie. He then extrapolated the “bad” and tried it out with other words including boy. I had no idea that him saying it once that evening would turn into one of his favorite common phrases for a couple of months. Fortunately, the perseverating is starting to decrease. He is still saying the words numerous times each day, but I feel the intensity and quantity is going down. This has been a good week so far at his pre-k, so fingers crossed the regression is coming to an end and on the other side will be a more confident CB with other improved skills. We have noticed him moving in a galloping/skipping manner, which is a great new physical movement for him :).
We will see what happens next December. Maybe I will try some big diet change around that time again so maybe I can head off the regression before it starts ;0.