What would be causing this in a young child?

What would cause a child to play by their self and has a delay in large motor skills? Also problems with speech.

A child like that would need a formal evaluation by doctors, teachers, psychologists. It would be dangerous to just "guess". That child needs a treatment and educational plan.

You don't say how old the child is. The other poster is correct in saying that the child needs to see a doctor, if in school they need to be involved as well.

My son has Global Development Delay which is a big name for fine and gross motor delays. If we had checked things out sooner he could have had therapy to help him develop the skills. Instead we just thought it was part of his prematurity and that he would out grow it. He is 11 and still has delays. Get him checked out by a doctor.

It could be a lot of things. I agree with the above posters who say your child should be evaluated. My son has motor skills issues which are a problem with his tendons. He needs to type instead of write because he cannot control a pen or pencil. His legs needed to be in casts for months to stretch his tendons. He's 17 and still walks on his tippy toes from the tendon issues and also it's an aspergers thing from what I've been told. He had very delayed speech and liked to play on his own. He couldn't read or even talk but would sit with books for hours flipping the pages and staring intently at words he didn't understand. He enjoyed it. My son has aspergers and physical issues.

I had surgery at around 18 months of age for a cleft palate. I have motor impediments. I don't think I got very much help, maybe an extra class of pt. I had a speech impediment and the therapy really didn't end up helping me as much as I hoped it had.

Anyway, one of the "causes" of schizophrenia is an early surgery/hospitalization, or so I've read.

I was going to say something else but I've forgotten what. 😌

Oh, yeah, I preferred to be on my own at a very early age. Something about playing with other kids was awkward and unpleasant for me.

I was 5. The school just called my mom and my mom yelled at me and grounded me because I had a delay in large motor skills. Also, when I was playing by myself and the teacher called my mom, I was yelled at and grounded because I was playing by myself. It really upset me because I didn't think I did anything wrong.

Actually, the surgery may have occurred at 6 or 8 months. I have that written down somewhere. [The smell of the ether made me sick to death when I was about 5 or 6 years old, waiting with my parents for relatives at a Chinese restaurant; the air freshener in there was a dead ringer.]

The most common cause for these symptoms in young children is usually hearing problems, because this can effect speech , confidence around peers and balance, confidence being a major factor in how well anyone integrates with their surroundings.
Some correct themselves but most often they would go undiagnosed and kids would learn to compensate.
There is no substitute for getting a community paediatrician to take a look though.

No, it is not a hearing problem. I was checked for that when I was at school. They also checked my eyes. They had cards that I said the name of what was on the card. I was taken out of class by myself to see this lady. They said my IQ was 104 in second grade. They did all this stuff when I was in second grade. At that time I also walked strange. I walked sideways and did like jumping jacks sideways without moving my arms and this was my only means of transportation. That is how I would skip because I didn't know how to.