My son has a habit of not responding sometimes when we call him. We know he hears, but he still doesn't respond until he feels like it. How do we deal with this?

hehe I work in child care and somedays I feel that all the 15 kids ignore me. I know it is frustrating.

I beleive this ' selectiv hearing' is a stage kids goes through - at least it seems like it. What we do in child care is to use gesture and active show them what we need them to do. Say I need one of them to pick up all the blocks he emptied on the floor. First I ask him to - which of course will be ignored. Then I take his hand and lead him to the block. I ask him again to pick them up and show how to by picking up one myself. By then I usually have attention. I promise to stay and help pick up which normally ends up in me picking up most of the blocks but whatever. The child did eventually do what I asked him too.

Good luck.

I sometimes think that this is just ingrained in kids. I have two sons and they both do this. Of course the youngest one does have slight hearing loss. But he is not deaf so I know that sometimes he does hear me he just chooses not to. I have resorted to making sure they are making eye contact with me when I am talking to them.

One of my sons and my husband is the same. It is like they have heard you but the message hasn't got through that you want them - it isn't that they are doing it on purpose.

I find it happens when they are concentrating hard on a task. What I do is tap them when I am talking to them and also call them more and more loudly until they notice that I want something.

Originally Posted by Liza

My son has a habit of not responding sometimes when we call him. We know he hears, but he still doesn't respond until he feels like it. How do we deal with this?

Is hard to give you an advice since you haven't told us how old is your son and under what circumstances he doesn't hear you ( I mean if he seems absent when you call him for having lunch or for taking a bath , going to play ?!..etc ).

My daughter is seven, and is just the same she either ignores you or answers with a 'dont know' when you ask her things like 'are you hungry' or 'would you like some juice' she drives me potty.

She does tend to ignore her dad rather than me, but they can have a bit of a fiery relationship at the best of times.

Well, usually when my daughter ignores my calling, I just call her name using a very stern voice and she'd be quick to response. It works all the time and I think that they only ignore you because they are testing your patience, once they know you are running out of it they will be quick to make sure you don't get there.

Originally Posted by Mommy In Pink*

Well, usually when my daughter ignores my calling, I just call her name using a very stern voice and she'd be quick to response. It works all the time and I think that they only ignore you because they are testing your patience, once they know you are running out of it they will be quick to make sure you don't get there.

You have a very good counter measure there. I 'm doing it all the times. The moments they heard a different intonations in your voice, they'll be very prompt in answering you. I guess kids are real smart nowadays in reading people's mind.

You should better consult doctor. It can be some mental related problem, so dont delay to see the doctor.