Help - My DD only likes adults.

[Mumface87]

My daughter has just turned two and a half and seems only to like adults.

DD doesn't attend nursery, but will happily leave my side at playgroup to play. She is happy to play alone but isn't particularly interested in playing with other children and will stop doing something if too many children join in. She will share and do activities alongside other children if an adult is present. At playdates she will do activities with the other child and run around with them but would still rather "play" with the adults.

If I ask who her friends are she will reel-off a list of Mums and helpers from all the different playgroups we attend. If I say 'What about Charlie or Amy?' or any other children we often come into contact with, she replies that she 'only likes them a little bit'.

All the adults make such a fuss of her and she loves the attention, but I have no idea how to get her to like the other children. Is this "normal" only-child behaviour or is it something I should address and if so how?

My children were not really very interested in other children until about 3, I think that's the age when their social development starts, before that they would tend more to play alongside each other than together, so I wouldn't worry too much unless you have other concerns.

She probably likes playing with adults better because they stick to the rules, share the toys, listen to her... Skills her peers are probably still mastering, hence adults being the playmates of choice.

I also felt this about my dd from what I observed, and was constantly amazed when the staff at the nursery she attends described her as sociable with the other children.
Like a pp said, for dd it is only in the last couple of months (and she is about to be three) that she has really started to talk about her friendships with her peers with any degree of enthusiasm. And organising her party recently, we still had to ask her key worker to name her six closest friends at nursery, as she'll only really admit to liking her two best friends there, usually only one of them!

At 2.5 I think that is completely normal. Many children don't really play with others until 3 or 4 - especially if they don't have siblings who are close in age to play with.