three year old and independent play...

[tholeon]

Mine just won't. He is great at pre school and most of the time is fairly well behaved compared to his peers. But he always needs a playmate. He gets loads of entertainment and adult interaction and constantly demands it. The only thing he is happy to do by himself is watch tv, so he has it on far too much. Any advice? Are we impeding his development by giving him constant entertainment?? How do we stop??

The fact that he will only watch TV on his own is not a reason to allow him to watch lots of it. It would definitely be a good idea to limit that if you feel he watches too much.

What does he do if you tell him you are busy and can't play with him for a few minutes?
Children need our attention, but it is also ok to say no sometimes.
If he doesn't have a playmate or adult to play with, he will soon learn to entertain himself.

My son, now 4, was the same although he is now a lot better. It can be really hard work. Things that did work for me were bringing out toys he hadn't seen for a while, setting him a task such as build a train track into the kitchen, getting him to help do jobs around the house or giving him a goal such as I will play once I have finished the washing up.
One thing I never got to do was put my feet up though, but I can do that now occasionally so there is hope!

What worked for me is to actually give them a task and then keep checking on progress. e.g, get the stickers, glue, sparkly bits and bobs box out, sit them at the table and say, i'm just going to peel some potatoes, when i get back i want to see who can make the best pitcure of a tree/boat/dragon etc. Then every 5 mins or so just pop head round the door, and give encouragement like oh wow, you are doing so well, its looking great, why not add some buttons/tissue/sequins etc.
Once they are comfortable with that, you can extend the time they are left to their own device (not i had 2 with a 16 mth gap so they could in theory entertain each other but i also found this a good way of getting them to do somehting together rather than just fight)
My DS also loves helping me around the house with a cloth, duster, dustpan and brush etc so i could get on with jobs and include the DC too