51

So, I'm concerned about a child.

Let me explain.

There's a 3 and a half year old child I know, who I've known since she was 6 months old. She's always been a bit obsessive about some things...but the older she gets...the worse it gets.

A few of the concerns are:

1) She repeats the same sentence over and over and over and over again. The topic varies day to day. The repeating, however, is consistent. It might be something so simple as "the weather is nice out today" or something like "That boy hit me just now." Over and over.

2) Today (and according to her mother all weekend long) she asks over and over, "Ella, are my hands clean?" and then she smells her hands. And literally, as soon as she takes her hands away from her nose, she repeats the question, and the sniffing and it repeats. I finally asked her to stop, and she didn't. So, I told her if she didn't stop she'd have to sit in time out. So, she stopped saying the phrase, but she keeps smelling her hands.

3) She has always been obsessed with her shoes. She freaks out if her shoes come untied and she will not quit saying "my shoe is untied" over and over back to back time and time again, until you tie her shoe. And, I don't mean I ignore her. I acknowledge she needs her shoe tied, but that I'm busy at the moment and I'll get to the shoe in a second. But it doesn't matter...she just keeps repeating over and over the same phrase.

4) Poop. It's gross, I know, but she will not poop. Her parents have gone round and round with her. They've taken her to the doctor and they've even had to medicate her to help her with it.

5) Not that this is a big one, but she is mean to her little sister. When she thinks no one is watching, she's mean to her. (And when the little sister was born, the girl would not even look at her or acknowledge her existence for weeks.)

So, those are my concerns. Sounds a bit...off...does it not?