1 year old - advice about playing with other children

[MarsMama17]

My son is 23 months old but since around 18 months he’s been very sociable with other children. The problem is he walks directly up to children says hello and tries to play/converse with them. I’ve found children his age don’t acknowledge him as they play alone or side by side and the older children don’t understand what he’s saying so run off. It’s only the older ones who can humour the language barrier that he plays with.
I can see how frustrated and disheartened he gets as he’s desperate to play one on one with other children.

Does anyone else’s 1 year old play this way? And any advice on how to help him interact/ play with children his age?

Thank you

Your son is doing fine and nothing wrong

The issue is lots of children aren't socialised to play with strange children especially if they are younger than them.

My DD used to do similar to your son when younger and only a few kind older children would pay with her. The children tended to be between 4 to 8 years old.

When she got to 4 and refused to play with smaller children who approached her, I pointed out that other older children had played with her when she was younger. She then started playing with younger children who approached her.

You just need to keep looking, there'll be other kids like him out there. Kids with older siblings tend to be more advanced in their ability to play. Does he go to nursery?

At 23 months, I'd round up to 2 when asking for advice, it's likely to be more accurate that describing him as 1 (even though he is 1!).