is this imaginative play?

[porgie]

DS playing with farm i had set up, likes the tiny ladder, puts his toes on it, was climbing a cow up the ladder. he has also started making the animals "walk". was so happy, shed a little tear!

[RaggedRobin]

i'm not an expert, but i would think so! i know what you mean about feeling excited when they start walking their toys around; ds did this today with Jess the Cat. to me, it shows that they are imagining the toys are characters and it really shows a leap in how they are interacting with objects around them. maybe someone more knowledgeable will disagree, but i think it's an exciting development!

[dsrplus8]

great news !

[lingle]

Can I hijack? DS2 got a spring in a party bag (the kind that is supposed to "walk" down your stairs but it usually doesn't work".

He didn't know what it was. Stretched it, squashed it, explored it, pinged it etc. Then compacted it, looked through the hole in the middle, pointed it at me and said "SMILE!" (as in taking a photo).

Does that count? I'm pretty sure he knew it wasn't a camera.

Be gentle if answer's no.

[PeachyAndTheSucklingBas]

Lingle I would say yes tbh, well done him.

[Marne]

I would say yes, well done, its great when they do this.

I saw dd2 put a bottle in a dolls mouth a few weeks ago, i was as she never does anything like this and then at hospital last week she put a plastic carrot to her ear and babbled into it as if it was a phone, i almost cried.

Well done.

[Aefondkiss]

Porgie at your ds walking a cow up a ladder, it really gives me hope when my ds does a tiny thing that seems so natural to other children.

Lingle your child pretended the slinky toy was a camera,.

[lingle]

Thank you !

It's funny at nursery at the moment - the teacher tells me he did something like understanding a basic instruction - and I get so excited that I pick him up and say "You are SOOOO clever!!" - and turn round to see other parents looking at me with a mixture of pity and astonishment! Poor them, they don't have our cutie-pies.

I'm almost where I used to be with DS1 - where my attitude was "you are so glorious, I feel so sorry for parents who have talking children who aren't you".

[kettlechip]

me too, tclanger, it's lovely to be exempt from it all in some ways. I've shed a competitive friend along the way and actually feel quite liberated.

Can I join in with imaginative play? ds1 stacked up some french stick pieces at a party at the weekend, and proudly announced that they were "makka pakka stones."

[moondog]

Porgie YES
Lingle YES

Would be v happy if I saw both in a salt assessment.

[lingle]

And little Marne too. Yeah little Marne!

[kettlechip]

We've recently had covering toy animals in tea towels on the kitchen floor (how hygienic!), and saying night night to them, feeding them at the table, and yesterday he had ds2's baby monitor (I assume he realises it's not a phone) and was holding it to his ear saying "ring ring", "hello".

But does all that actually count as basic imaginative play rather than symbolic play (I always find it confusing to differentiate)? Would be good to have it to report to SALT next week if so..

[allytjd]

I remember getting excited when DS2 bit the corner off a cream cracker to make it into a gun! come to think off it most off his imaginative play consists off pretending things are guns .

[porgie]

oooh so happy, he also pinched a banana from soft play place and said nana, so i had to buy it for him! we are struggling with nursert though, left him for 45 mins yesterday and he cried most of the time. when i went to collect him he gripped me in a hug and kept saying "bye"! any tips ladies?