My 4 year old son is quite shy – he is often afraid of kids at the playground and only engages in parallel play occasionally.
Can anyone recommend any picture books or Mr Rogers / Sesame Street episodes on interacting with other kids? I think that he needs examples of the skills required to talk with other kids, as well as examples of shy kids having fun with other kids.
As a side question, I don’t understand how lemmy works. How do I see the c/parenting groups on all of the other lemmy servers?
Do you have some contact to kids outside of preschool? Maybe they profit from more exposure with smaller groups with the security of you beeing around.
We have a very shy and afraid kid in a group of friends that formed in the first year of life of our kids, so they are all roughly the same age. We meet for smaller playdates with 2-4 kids of the group, oftentimes at one of our homes and that kids seems to have an easier time to open up a little more in this setting. She went from screaming in terror as my very outgoing and energetic kid got in a meter radius to playing together. Seems to seep into them beeing more open in daycare as well.
Or shes just growing out if it, who can really be sure about these things.
Good luck
If he’s in daycare, that’s precisely their job. You should talk to them, I’m sure they’ll also have book recommendations (I know such books exist but can’t think of a title). If he’s not, 3-4 years is a good time to start.
You would think so, but preschools don’t have too much time for non-crisis stuff like this.
OK, that might be the case for you but please do not generalize. IMO any preschool/kindergarten educator who dismisses a parent’s question has failed.
Or do you refer to what’s happening during the day?
I think you’re right on the money with kids needing the examples of playing. Just watching other kids play is a normal part of development. As far as videos go there is a good Ms Rachel video on playground skills This one I think. The video would kind of psych them up to go to the playground.
My 3 years old like dinosaurs a lot. Some time ago he decided that a good way to engage with other children on the playground would be to roar like a T-Rex at them. It even worked one time, some children started playing with him because of it. But most of the other times everyone is very confused and afraid because they don’t understand what’s going on. Two weeks ago in a kindergarten a girl told him that he should stop because she doesn’t like it, there a world broke for him, he didn’t get why this girl was so upset and started crying himself. Since then he ist doing it less often.
[off topic]
Have you checked around for play groups?
I see events at the local library, and there’s kid play at the YMCA.
My parents had me in an overnight summer camp when I was a little older, and it worked out well.
That’s a good idea for exposure to other kids, but he is already in preschool, which is a sort of playgroup. Too young for overnight camp.
Good luck
