Is it uncommon that 20 month DS isn't interested in cars or wheels?

[bigbasketapples]

My 20 month DS loves to name automobiles when out and about - and loves to look at his flash cards and name them, or his wall mural. And he loves the flat puzzle with cars, pointing them out and pushing them into place.

But he rarely picks one up and plays with it, or pushes it along the ground. He'll get in his little car or push that along, but none of the small ones. if we go to a playgroup and he sees one there, he'll get down and push it for a couple of seconds but his attention won't be held for longer than that.

I find it quite unusual since most of the others his age are always holding or playing cars or interested in the wheels.

It's not even that he has any other huge interests - he just moves from one thing to another very quickly.

Is this unusual and/or age appropriate? And that he likes naming them but not necessarily playing with them?

ds still doesnt particularly play with cars and he is nearly 6. They have never been of great interest to him

Vodka - what else is he interested in? and if you can dig deep, do you remember what he was interested in around 18 months - 2 years?

he was always more interested in soft toys and puzzles and now plays with beyblades, pokemon toys, footballs, electronic consoles, etc. He is playing beyblades right now and it is very noisy! (spinning tops that battle in a stadium - last one standing wins - also a cartoon tv program)

Sounds totally normal - not all children are interested in actual cars or wheels at any given stage.

You might find it interesting to read about schemas - different patterns to children's play which change over time. It sounds as if your DS isn't working on a rotational schema at the moment.

Lots of children this age (and older!) move from one thing to another really quickly. Research shows that often they're being very consistent in what they're doing - they're carrying out activities to do with the same schema but in the context of different materials.

For example, my 2.8 y.o. is working on joining things in long lines. So we have a queue of vehicles at the petrol pump, a long train line, a big traffic jam, a long line of number magnets on the fridge, a pattern made by sticking a long line of foam shapes in a line on a piece of paper etc. If you think of those as 'different' activities you could say that he doesn't spend very long on each. But if you think of them as working on a 'long joined lines' schema then you can see that he's been working on the same thing on and off for several days.

DS is the same (and same age) - he's quite interested in real cars and will always wander around touching the outside of ours before he's put in it, and he likes the push along type he can sit in, but he really isn't bothered about toy ones. He's far more interested in puzzles on the odd occasion he sits still for more than a minute