A question about memory/learning/make believe with NT and non-NT children

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My 2 year old son has a really good memory - if we pass streets where friends live, he'll recognise them; he recognises people in photos after seeing them once etc

He'll also remember when we've messed around and put baskets on our head, or hung things around our ears - and it seems like all of his imaginative play is based around what we've done together and what he remembers. Very little, if any, comes from him. And in fact, he doesn't really do much imaginative play at all. Messes around in his kitchen sometimes.

So I think he uses memory a LOT in learning and playing - even with shape sorters etc - is this typical for NT children?

I've got experience of working with non NT/SN children, but not with NT (first child).

I don't know - my ds1, who is not entirely NT, has a phenomenal memory and also, I think, memorised how to do shape sorters and jigsaw puzzles (could put them together if he had taken them apart, but had no clue whatsoever what to do with pieces that started out separate, and recently demonstrated in an IQ test that whilst his verbal IQ across the board is phenomenal, his ability to do the Block Design test was extremely limited)... His imagination has become more original as he has got older, though (probably actually translated as being able to draw on an ever wider range of memories!... but then what is imagination, anyway? I don't actually know any children who spontaneously do random things that don't relate to anything they have ever experienced before, unless they do it by accident, so maybe it's just more noticeable with a child with a superb memory who can therefore more accurately re-create his experiences!). I know my ds1 comes across these days as far more imaginative than other children his age, largely because his motor planning is poor, so rather than go about "doing" and making things, he lives in his head a lot of the time and thus spends a lot of time making up fantasy adventures. Reality never gets in the way of his stories.

I would say, at age 2, you shouldn't worry about it if all else seems OK. A 2-year old who enjoys playing games with you and copies you sounds pretty normal to me.

Thanks Rabbit, that's really interesting