4 year old not interested in other children

[Oodlesofdoodlescockapoodles]

Hello,

I'm just interested in what your 3/4 (preschool) aged children are like around other children?

We've been to several parties recently with friends from nursery where I've noticed that my child doesn't really interact with the other children. She is generally quite shy but she also doesn't really seem interested. Would this concern you? If you didn't know, you wouldn't have thought she knew any of the other kids!

I'm not sure if by this age you would expect more elaborate games with others like role play etc, whereas she is quite happy just playing by herself.

Boy or girl? Eldest child or younger sibling?

If this is your eldest and especially if it’s a boy, totally normal.

Ah you said she! But still at this age it’s a wide range of play styles!

Sorry, girl and middle child

Depends whether she's at nursery or not. Kids who haven't had much experience socialising often struggle in groups, whereas those who are used to it manage better.

4 year olds generally parallel play. Don't worry about it

My ds was never that interested in others kids, he would just do his own thing, or watch them and then play along side. He was diagnosed autistic at 4.
He always showed more interests in adults

My 5 year old was a bit like this at the first few parties we went to and she didn’t really interact with the other children (because of covid no parties during pre-school year, so this was in reception).
Now she’s more used to seeing those children outside of school she’s more confident joining in. I think she’s just a bit reserved in a situation where she’s unsure of the social rules.

I've been at a nursery /pre school every day this week as settling my son in. When you watch the kids (3/4) they hardly play with each other at this age they are much more focused on what they want to do. I noticed this changed for the 4/5 year olds

Right through to end of reception they just play alongside each other. Everyone is 'friends' or 'best friends' with everyone depending on who they played next to that day. Yr 1 they start to pick the kids they play with a bit more based on personality, likes/dislikes but are still pretty open to just playing with whoever is playing with what they want to do.