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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Does anyone else hve a toddler tht doesn't really play with toys?

12 replies

ThreeGuesses · 14/03/2010 23:55

I read threads bout toddlers playing with dolls houses, play mobil but dd, 2.4, is not into anything really.

She has a dolls house, which she got for christmas and it sits untouched. I hhd oppertuntiy to buy secondhand happyland stuff but dd isn't intrested.

I made her a tent in the living room and put her dollies in with her pretend food but she thought it was ok for about 2 mins.

She loves to read books, bake cakes, she might do scribbling with crayons for 10 mins but she has no interest in toys which need imagination.

Is this normal?

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Original poster

ThreeGuesses · 14/03/2010 23:57

Really awful grammer and spelling

OP posts:

Clary · 15/03/2010 00:06

It can be a bit of a red flag for ASD.

But without any other info about yr DD I would hesitate to suggest this in yr case - just I knew a child once who played with nothing at toddler group, just ran about the room.

OTOH it may simpyl be that she is not interested in imaginative type play. Not all DC are.

Clary · 15/03/2010 00:06

Sorry meant to say that the non-playing-child at toddlers was later diagnosed with ASD.

Blomkvist · 15/03/2010 00:16

My DS is 2.7 and I think it's not particularly unusual for children of this age to not really focus on toys for much time. He kind of flits around from toy to scribbling to whatever. I think imaginative play comes slightly later. I would think that 2.4 is quite young for a dolls' house.

meandjoe · 15/03/2010 06:53

My ds was like this. He just used to flit from one thing to another (never hi own toys, just pottering around the house with me) but now he older 2.7 he can roll play and makes his tent into a pond and pretends to catch fish from it etc. A dolls house requires a lot of imagination which 2.4 yr olds don't have. My ds would probably only be interested in it now to see if it came to bits or not . Sounds perfectly fine to me.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 15/03/2010 07:06

My dd (8.10 now) has never had any interest in playing with toys. she had a gorgeous dolls house with many accesories, puzzles, books, teddies etc. She sounds a lot like yours and prefered to look at the telly or books. She is still the same. For her birthday last year she got quite a lot of littlest pet shop, it sits in a box and only comes out if her friends come round to play. she is much more interested in reading and will read till her eyes fall out if she is allowed to. Nothing to worry about IMO.

sausagepastie · 15/03/2010 07:12

We had one

all he liked was electrical cables and old television parts (had to filter out the non sharp stuff)

he's heavily into lego now though. It comes, with time, maybe.

topsi · 15/03/2010 07:24

she is still young, attention span can be quite short at this age.

savoycabbage · 15/03/2010 07:42

My dd1, now 6 never played with any toys and she still doesn't.

She liked drawing, gluing, play-doh, singing, dancing and things like that. I could take her to a toy shop right now and tell her she could have whatever she wanted and she would not know what to do, because she doesn't want anything like that. She finds imagnative play quite hard, she can't play with the farm for example because she doesn't know what to do with it. I was worried about her.

When she was three my dh said that I should stop buying her playmobil and farms and think about what she likes to do in a different way so now I have a massive craft cupboard full of glitter and she has a table and chair and she sits for ages and ages there. We got her a cd player and a wallet full of cd's and she could prance around. I really did have to think in a different way about her and what she likes.

Original poster

ThreeGuesses · 15/03/2010 08:52

Thanks everyone for the reassurance

Savoy that's really good advice, I have a small craft box with glue and stickers in, I think expanding that is the way to go.

Shame though as I have a wooden farm, dolls house and happyland things all sitting uplayed with. Oh well maybe dc2 will like them!

OP posts:

mintyfresh · 15/03/2010 10:49

Please don't worry about it - certainly no red flags for ASD from what you have said! I have just come from helping at playgroup where most of the children were engaged for a few minutes at a time on a task and then moved to something else or were running about.

My dd is 2.9 and is only just starting to play a little more imaginatively. She is also into cooking and drawing. It may just be her personality or it may be something that develops later.

savoycabbage · 15/03/2010 12:10

Me too! I have all of those things and my dd2, who is three now loves them all and will play for ages. I bought dd1 a MASSIVE playmobil castle for christmas two years and she didn't give a hoot about it. Her favourite thing was a triangle. The musical instrument that is.

That was when my dh stepped in and he is right. This year I got her a school desk for her bedroom and she loves it. We have a billy bookshelf next to her table packed with things she can get out herself and a kitchen cupboard with things in she has to ask for.

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