Toddler wants to make friends but gets ignored

[Toomuchtooyoung01]

DD is 2.5yrs, not yet at nursery although we are looking at a couple of potential nurseries to enrol her at.
She has always attended lota of baby/toddler classes with other children the same age, she was extremely timid until about 6 months ago when she became much more confident after an older girl asked her to play while we were at a soft play place.
She has brilliant language with a wide vocabulary. She constantly approaches other toddlers/tries to make friends with them and gets absolutely nothing back, not even acknowledgement. She has started saying things like "I tried to talk to the littke girl and she didn't want to talk to me" etc and I worry she is going to have her confidence knocked/will take it personally and think shes not worth being acknowledged etc/expect to be ignored etc , she is so keen to play with other kids and I find it so upsetting watching how disappointed she is when her friendly advances are ignored. I'm also concerned that she will accept poor treatment by peers when she starts nursery as she will be so desperate for a friend.
I know I'm being really sensitive about this, I think it stems back to my own experiences as a child and i just want her to avoid feeling as I did. Anyone have any pearls of wisdom?! Thanks!

Sounds like she is ready to make friends but the other children are still at the parallel play stage which is entirely normal. Just tell her that some children are too shy to talk to her but she can still play with the same toys are them until they are less shy.

I suspect the issue is that younger toddlers parallel play. They don't interact much, they tend to concentrate on what they are playing with.

Your dd might simply be a bit more advanced in the interaction stakes than her nursery mates.

I think at that age not many children play together, they are are more likely to just play near each other or copy each other. It might be that your child is a bit more advanced with language that a lot of peers.

I was a childminder and I'd take 3 or 4 children out to play at soft play or the park etc and we'd always have the only child coming to try to play, but these children come to play with each other and enjoyed that, they didn't need anyone new. So although polite they didn't invite others in.

So I'd definitely sign up for play school or nursery or a childminder. Children there will model how to be friends and she'll learn to look for someone who wants to play. Not all children want a 'friend' they might be busy learning a new skill and need space.

I was apparently very solitary as a child. Don't take it personally- the other kids might just choose to play alone, a lot of toddlers do. It's probably nothing against your child specifically.