Ideas of toys to help DS social skills

[MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy]

Hi all following an appt today with SALT. It was identified that although DS (almost 3) is very advanced in some areas, he is lacking in social/imaginative play. My DS toys are predominatly educational, as in alphabet, numbers, puzzles, shapes, colours etc.. because he enjoys these things and will pick them over playing with things like toy kitchen equipment etc.
when she gave him a doll and and him to wash the doll/feed the doll etc he didn't want to he just wanted to go back to the puzzles/numbers.

She advised I get some toys to encourage imaginative play which will help with his social skills/sharing/interacting with others.

Any recommendations on toys like this for boys? I have already placed a kitchen set in my basket but struggling for ideas.

Thanks in advance 🙏

Do you have a kitchen he can stand at? Melissa and Doug brand do a lot of real life type toys. A toy sink with water could be good too or a work bench with tools.

How about a board game like Doggy Woof Woof which should encourage waiting and turn taking?

If he's lacking in imaginative play and is behind a little with SLT has the HV done the 36 month Ages & Stages and the 36 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages?

@CadyEastman no not had that done yet but I'm going to look at this in advance, thanks for sharing x

Not a particular toy suggestion but could you incorporate the letters etc. into something more imaginative to make it appeal to him more? This morning I made a car wash station with my little boy - just some cardboard and we made a ‘car wash’ sign with alphabet stickers and used a paint roller to ‘wash’ the cars. See if he can get the cars to queue up for their turn, or wash all the blue cars first, or draw out spaces for the cars so there’s room for 3 cars at a time etc. to mix imaginative play with letters and colours and counting.

You can download, fill in both and score them at home then if they throw up any concerns, ask to speak to your HV and show them to her

I'd agree with doing the ASQ and the social-emotional ASQ yourself.

I'd also agree with trying to build on his existing interests. What about something like https://jackies-kids.uk/products/craftology-1. We have this, and it's sort of halfway between imaginary and real, as you can actually build things, so the spanner and screw drivers are 'real', the saw not so much. There's also a puzzle-like element in figuring out how to build the stuff in the book. There can be a cooperative element to building as well, you hold this, I'll do that. Early board games as well for the social play aspect, HABA do some very nice sets, and things like numbers and colours are naturally part of the game play. Orchard Games ones are also very popular, although my DD prefers the HABA ones we've got. You can get balancing games as well, where you take it in turns to put pieces on without the whole thing toppling over, which again might appeal to his puzzle-solving interests.

Try searching for children theaters
try buying some trucks and cars
if your child is watching some shows - toys that are merchandise of said characters would be good idea... but don't know if they are recommended for 3 year old

another thing you can do is to show him how to play with dolls or when buying trucks and cars, showing him how to play with trucks by saying bvroom bvroom. And of course with children theaters, you have to play with him.

you can get toys that are on batteries that are moving when you press some buttons, there are some trucks like that... or buying toys on rope