Social Skills

[Locoso]

My 3.5 year old son doesn’t really have friends. He plays with other kids in his class and calls them his friends, but no besties really. He will ask kids to play with him or join in when interested, but he seems less advanced than most of them. He still often prefers to play on his own, in his own way. Is that typical? He seems a bit behind socially. I see other kids his age much more engaged in associative play. He can and does, but is also very content to be with his parents or other adults or play with the kids in spurts. Sometimes I feel like he’s a bit socially awkward and doesn’t know what to do or say and can’t keep up. I don’t know!

Unless there are other concerns, that all sounds very much within the realms of normal. My daughter was much more socially advanced than my son and playing complicated group imaginary games at 2yo, whereas he's only really become interested in that now that he's 4.5yo.

Totally normal, they only start to move out of parallel play around 3, and don't reach fully collaborative play until 6 or more.

Each child will move at their own pace, but role playing at home with toys can help. "Hi my name is" and "can I take a turn" or "would you like to play with me" are good ones to build in.

There can be such a wide range of ages in classes too, some might be a little older or have older siblings. Huge difference in my first and second children socially!

I agree with both answers above.
Absolutely within normal developmental range.

Completely within the realms of normal. I remember taking DS to a playgroup when he was that age, and he and his peers of around the same were still very much doing parallel play and not paying much attention to each other, while the slightly older group, all of whom would be starting school the next autumn, were very much running around in a gang playing with one another.