Is this age appropriate pretend play

[Anyonethere79836492834]

My 23 month old puts food in the mini trolleys in the supermarket, makes his dinosaurs roar and say hello to each other, answers his toy phone with hello, drinks out of plastic tea cups, feeds his toy animals, pretends to be asleep and snore etc. is this all developmentally appropriate. Just a bit worried seeing some peoples posts and their Lo’s seem further on with the pretend play. Thanks

That sounds perfectly awesome and normal for a not quite 2 year old.

Phew, thank you!

Sounds good to me! Take other people’s social media posts with a bucket of salt. If you can pop along to a play group and see what other children the same age are actually doing.

if you’re really worried talk to an HV.

This is lovely. Creative and imaginative little kid. He is already linking ideas - trolleys contain food, dinosaurs roar, we snore when asleep…he sounds great and smart too.

Sounds lovely.

Aww he sounds so cute ❤️

I can't imagine how you could be further on? What do you mean?

If I was given a plastic cup I'd pretend to sip it. Give me a dinosaur and I'll make it roar. I'm an adult, now I'm worried I'm supposed to be writing the dinos some Shakespearean monologues.

This is how my just turned 2 year old plays

This made me LOL! I’ve seen some people writing their 19/20 month old was cooking food in their toy kitchen and serving it to them etc. and using a toy till with pretend money.

Totally normal and him doing what he does is all about what interests him as a person. He may have zero interest in play kitchens/shops.

Ah but did they give mummy the correct change?

Take all that lot with a punch of salt!

Totally normal! Even at that age, there will be things that interest them more than others.

Totally normal but if you’d like him to do those things, have you tried modelling how to do it with him? I’m sorry if that sounds patronising I don’t mean it to be!

Huge variation in "normal" at that age IME. DS was acting out all sorts of complex interactions with his stuffed toys at that age - BUT he's very introverted and "in his own head" by temperament, and I think it was just his way of processing the interactions he witnessed in his day. DD is 21 months and is more like how you describe your DS. They're both very normal kids 🤷🏽‍♀️

He sounds like he's developing normally.

The kids playing with their toy kitchen are also developing normally though.

There's a huge range of what is normal. It's not a competition. Get to grips with that now and you'll save yourself a lot of stress.

My kids are young adults now, but I was reflecting the other day how different their Early Years play would be now. They never have cash and pay for everything by 'tapping' or bank transfer. It's the same for me. If in had kids now, I am not sure they would see notes/coins or the exchange of physical objects (handing over notes and getting change back). Their play would be holding a phone to a machine!

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Times change, but it'll be more difficult to find real world applications for learning maths. So much is done for us now!

My dd has a toy mobile phone that came free with a magazine, and when she plays shop she uses that to pay. She does also play with the pretend money sometimes but mostly it’s the phone!

OP your little boy sounds lovely and like he’s developing completely appropriately. Mine was doing about the same at the same age; and I’d say now imagination/ storytelling etc is a real strong suit for her, she’s less interested in building with blocks for example though.

I’ve seen some people writing their 19/20 month old was cooking food in their toy kitchen and serving it to them

I could say that my DD does that, but really it's not any more complicated than your son pretending to drink tea out of a cup, and feeding his toy animals - she'll take some toy food to the toy kitchen, and bring it to me on a plate. That must be very similar thinking to what your son is doing feeding his animals, and drinking from a tea cup.
I wouldn't really consider it further along, just a different choice of game. My DD has never fed toy animals.

Some would say the most imaginative play is using an object for an unintended purpose.

Oh look little Zoe is using the toy saucepan to make me pretend soup and little Teddy is using the toy spatula to.....spread ketchup on the walls like plaster.

Yeah this is really true, thank you.