How much do 2-year-olds interact with other children?

[InTheDollshouse]

Recently I took DD (25 months) to a speech and language drop in clinic - she doesn't have as many words as children are "supposed" to have at age 2, and isn't making 2 word sentences, so I thought I'd see what they said. TBH, I was expecting them to say that she was a bit behind but not to worry. However after observing her for a while, the SALT asked me various questions and didn't really focus on her speech at all. Instead she focused on her behaviour, said that she wasn't interacting with the other children in the room, asked if she was normally like that, was she normally so "self-contained" and so quiet. She has referred us for a proper one-to-one speech and language assessment. She didn't really say what she thought the problem might be though.

I'm quite worried now. DD is very self-contained and often at toddler groups/playground doesn't interact much with other children, but then, I didn't think children her age did really. Or do they?

Beyond pushing and shoving you mean? I thought at this age they were still into 'parallel play', also that some children will be more self-contained than others.

DS is 2.3 and is happiest playing on his own, interacting with others usually means someone's getting a toy snatched which he doesn't like.

I would say your SALT is being over-cautious. My three interacted a bit at that age, but v little (and they all had speech delays of various sorts) and mostly confined to snatching toys or having them snatched. If your dd is happy to play alongside, and doesn't mind being around other children, even if she doesn't actually interact, I would have thought that is fine for her age.

Sorry, I should also add that my dc's speech delays mostly sorted themselves out and now I can't shut them up.

Ds always liked to play by himself at this age rather than with other children.

He played with me and dh but not with other kids. He used to stand and watch them but wasn't interested in playing with them. he's now 6 and very socialble.

Try not to worry..

Oh my! I agree, it's over-cautious. My 2.5yo does play bizarre, imaginative games with her (very verbal) friends "help! there's a shark, run away" , but equally, and especially at toddler groups, can sit and play alone 'self-contained' for the whole session.

BUT think it's better to take all the support and advice available. It's not gonna hurt to get some interesting ideas even if you do find out later it wasn't really necessary. I really want to go to the drop-ins as adore language learning -am an ex-linguistics student but dd is very verbal so wouldn't. Will def go with ds given half a chance.

Hang on, and def at 25mths was not really playing with other children. Maybe occasionally, with a child she knew really well...

Thanks everyone, that confirms what I thought. I'm happy to take her to the assessment - better to have an assessment that wasn't totally necessary than be in the opposite situation of needing one and not getting the help. Will try to worry a bit less though!