3.5 yr old mimicking

[Hirani85]

Hello

I have noticed in the playground that when my son wants to make friends, he will often follow a child around and mimic them. Eg the kid falls over, my DS will fall over too and laugh, kid takes a drink, he will, kid calls for their mum, he will call me.

Is this normal? He doesn't always do this but he does seem to struggle a bit with approaching other kids. Sometimes he will just initiate a chasing game - other times he'll just speak to them or say hello. He's starting preschool next week, has never been in a childcare setting - we tried him in creche but he hated it and is quite anxious about us leaving him.

TIA

At 3 it's probably just within the realms of normal but I'd expect that by 4, most children have learned how to socially interact with some more skill.

The best thing you can do is model to him what to do. Eg. He sees a child playing on the slide, you can go over with DS and say to the child "You went really fast then! Now it's DS turn...shall we see if DS goes as fast?"

How's DS language development getting on?

Thank you! His language is fine, lots of speech and good understanding. He's quite good at taking turns when playing - he's very sweetly encouraging of others. I try to model, to help him say hello and introduce himself. He can get a bit overexcited sometimes.

Anyone else?

Gosh he just sounds like a normal, slightly awkward 3 year old...they're all a bit awkward about socialising OP. Some hit, some hassle....only a few have it down pat at 3. That would be unusual.

Hi

I am not sure if it’s normal but I can say my 3.5 year old does the same, he can also get over excited in certain environments. I am helping him find ways to join in, teaching him to ask if he can play and introduce himself etc, I also find him a lot calmer if he has play dates at home so we have been doing that. I am not concerned about it yet, I think I will just keep an eye on it and see how he goes. I think he is a lot better at socialising and joining in with others now than he was six months ago, so in another six months I can hope he has developed from here just as much