Does this sound like normal play for a 2 year old?

[captivatingtears]

Just curious whether my 2 year old DS play is typical - both in types of things he does and the repetition!

• playing on scooter
  
• kicking football or balloons
  
• painting and drawing
  
• playing with water and bowls 'stirring' etc
  
• being carried around while I cook and trying to help
  
• bouncing on sofa and bed
  
• going out - park etc
  
• puzzles and reading
  
• Lego towers
  
• running small cars along floor and furniture
  

He likes quite a lot - only for a few minutes at a time, mind - although his favourite stuff longer - but he doesn't show much imagination. For example, with Lego all he wants to do is build a tower and knock it over. Over and again. He doesn't come at the Lego with a new idea unless we come up with it.

I know this age is repetitive with everything but should I expect more imagination or am I being silly?

[noblegiraffe]

Sounds normal to me. My 3.5 year old still wouldn't build anything other than a tower with lego, although he does do little narratives when playing with toys it tends to be renenacting things he has seen than coming up with his own stuff.

[ChippingInNeedsSleepAndCoffee]

You're being silly :)

He's fine. He actually plays with quite a variety of stuff compared to a lot of toddlers - a lot of them are quite obsessive about one kind of thing, whether it's dinosaurs, trains, cars or tractors.

He's still a bit young to be doing anything but building towers with lego :)

Really, don't worry, just enjoy him!

[amazingmumof6]

sounds very typical, especially the repetition!

yes, he won't necessarily come up with new things, so don't expect it, this is very much the time for "monkey sees-monkey does" - as the best way to learn anything is by copying!

depending on his level of doing things he's perhaps even a bit ahead (puzzle and reading, to what extent?), but he's doing a really good variety of activities, so I'd say h';s development is on the right track across the board!

and no, you are not silly for asking!

( although I'm not impressed about the Lego, giving him small parts unsuitable for under the age of 3 is just bordering child abuse! )

[captivatingtears]

I don't mean he reads - stories that I read- and v simple puzzles that we do together. And the Lego is the big piece stuff - name escapes me

Thanks for your replies, appreciate it

[tacal]

Your ds does more than my 4 year old ds. But I do have some concerns about my ds. It is great that your ds does puzzles, lego, painting and drawing. I really struggle to get my ds interested in these things. My ds has a need for repetition, it is so bad it is affecting our day to day life. Do you find the repetition a problem?

Not sure what you should expect when it comes to imagination. My ds was very repetitive with his games at 2 and has a very vivid imagination now.

He sounds typical but if you have concerns it is always good to speak to your gp or hv about them.

[BertieBotts]

Imaginative play comes much later. DS has only really ramped it up in the last few months - he's 4 now. It would be very unusual for a child to be doing imaginative play at 2, they're more likely to be doing exploring play still or experiments - what happens if I put this here, will this stay? Will this fit? etc. And some are doing the kind of lining up/counting/matching type of games too, but not all.

[BertieBotts]

Oh YY and copying/mimicking things that you do should be starting around now continuing to 3 or so and then being a less important part but still forming a part of his games - after all, they learn how the world works from others.

[captivatingtears]

No I don't find the repetition a problem per se, just quite boring sometimes!! He's not obsessive - he doesn't spend a lot of time on one thing and can easily be pulled away

Looking at the list written down, yes he does do quite a lot which is nice to recognise

[tacal]

I know exactly what you mean when you say the repetition is boring!

[breatheslowly]

DD (2.4) does lots of the things on your list, but doesn't do much of the kicking a ball or playing with cars. And our duplo is in a box upstairs so she doesn't do much of that, but it is always tower building when she does. A lot of her play is imitating the actions of her nursery staff or acting out bits of Peppa Pig. She pushes her dolls and teddies around in a buggy from room to room, changes nappies and puts them down for a nap by beating patting them on the back. She brings us pretend cups of tea and food. She has phone calls which all go "mini-breathe speaking, how may I help you, no thank you, goodbye". She does sticker books. She occassionally does pretend shopping - always for carrots. She "reads" books to us more than she reads on her own. She likes playdough. She does a bit of dressing up - today she put wings on and did some flying (running). She also watches quite a bit of TV. Her attention span seems a bit short to me, for example she couldn't follow through making fairy cakes, but did run off and come back to it a few times.

[amazingmumof6]

captivatingtears - I guess you mean Duplo - yes mine do that too and also with the stacking blocks/cups.

the endless repetition seems boring to us or even annoying, but they have to master a particular skill or are learning about the world and all its wonders.

especially things falling down is just like magic, they wouldn't understand the definition of gravity, but by observing they learn a valuable lesson in physics!

if you think of it this way it's not so boring anymore!
it's actually very exciting to see it through their eyes!
"wow! I kick the ball and it moves -wow! let's try again - it moved again! try again - same thing! and I made it move! it's magic! I'm magic!"

and pouring water is one of the finest things in life - it's pretty, it's shiny, it's wet, it can change temperature, it falls in a weird way.....how can you ever stop?

you see what I mean?




BTW I was joking about lego, of course!

[BertieBotts]

Sorry to say it gets boring even when they get into imaginative play aside from the odd funny moment because their games are quite repetitive then too especially the constant "Play with me, play with me!" Argh! Much more fun when you have another adult to be in the game with, though.

[captivatingtears]

Hi, thanks all

Amazingmum - I know you don't mean to patronising, you're probably very nice, but I do completely realise why they repeat stuff; and of course it's very exciting for them. Equally, it's okay to say that it can be boring for adults at times.

[mysweetie]

Totally normal, the kids here does it all..though my nephew is showing some talents in lego and loves to built lego. While my DD is more interested in pressing and chatting online..lol

[mewkins]

hiya, dd is 2.5 and really into imaginative play at the moment, making up random weird and wonderful scenarios bringing in characters from stories and even, I believe, an imaginary friend who lives down the road! I am very srict about not classing toys as 'girls' or 'boys' toys so she has a broad range but she does gravitate more towards the little people characters, house and cars to do some imaginative play...so it may be worth having some of these around if you don't already. Also, a cheap set of play crockery and cutlery seems to encourage most kids to pretend play.

[NaturalBaby]

Ds1 was like this - he just wanted to play with cars and trains and just drive them around. He also loves to work out how things work. He's only starting to do more imaginative play now at 4yrs old because ds2 has such an amazing imagination.

[SpottyBagOfTumble]

Dd does loads of imaginative play at 2.8. She sets up her kitchen and then feeds baby, changes her nappy, cooks dinner, takes baby out paces....basically copying everything I used to do with her as a baby! She also pretends to have a mobile to text people which is a bit of a worry!

She will also do Lego/duplo, puzzles, painting, sticking, cars, dolls house, we go to the park, for walks, pretends to be various animals crawling around the floor and she also goes to a Cooking class.

Your ds sounds great. I don't know what you mean about the repetitive boring though!

[SpottyBagOfTumble]

do!! Damn auto correct!

[Beatrixpotty]

Sounds normal to me.DS2 is nearly 2 and plays like that.DS1 who is 3 really got into imaginative play,narrating whilst playing with all the various Thomas trains,and building things like aeroplanes with blocks when his language started to really take off at around 2.5