Reply to How to get your toddler to play alone?

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Reply to "How to get your toddler to play alone?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I think this is a really common issue OP. I know we've really been through it this year while we've all been home a lot.

One thing that has helped us is identifying exactly what you child needs. It's not always the same thing. Sometimes wants your to play with him because he doesn't yet understand the toy he's playing with and needs guidance. Sometimes he is just feeling insecure and needs that reconnection with you and to feel loved. Sometimes he's engaged in an activity that is simply more fun with someone else. Figuring out why he's asking can help.

For instance, my DD is in a morning PK program three days a week. She has a harder time playing on her own in the afternoon on those days, because she needs some check in time with one of us. School is still new for her and it really helps her to get parent time on those days to help her deal with the adjustment to being around other adults and other kids and what I'm sure are some tough realities around sharing and cooperating in a larger group. But this doesn't mean we have to play directly with her for four hours. It means that we are very intentional about sitting down with her when she gets home and focusing on her for a while, offering some support and reassurance as we debrief school, and offering encouragement as she starts to play. And then she'll play pretty independently as long as we are nearby. If we try to leave her alone in her room, she'll come looking for us because she still needs that touchpoint.

Extremely different vibe on a Sunday morning when she's just deep into a role playing game with her babies and needs one of us to come play a specific role for the game to work. We have to pay attention to what's driving her need because it allows us to make accommodate it in different ways (and not focus all of our attention on her 100% of the time, which is obviously not realistic).[/quote]

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