@doubtfulguest, i would looove if my DD would open up a bit to people. Thats another issue. Maybe its a result of her playground experience, but if someone on public transport talks to her or if someone walking by us says hello to me and smiles to her, she gives them the biggest frown EVER! She tells people they are strangers and that she can't talk to them and will run and hide behind me. Sometimes it makes people tease her and peek around me at her and a tantrum erupts. Don't have a clue where to take that problem except wait it out??!!
time and exposure will definitely help! my bean was the world's shyest at first and then over time it got better. the strangers would sometimes only make eye contact with her and smile - or talk to my husband (who was with her most often on the way home from work/montessori) about her. they would totally freak out over her vocabulary and clarity - and then they would want to engage her. at first, she really wouldn't respond - the frown-face is totally familiar over here, too!
but we'd try to emphasize that it's natural for people to be interested in interesting conversations, and sometimes some of them might want to join in. over time it really improved. she's still a bit shy, especially when she feels someone is really singling her out, but it's loads better.
we have definitely talked with DD about the difference between a kindly stranger and someone asking a lot of personal questions, or conversations that might occur without her parents present - i'm trying to remember, but i think we might have talked about this as early as 1.5? i think it was when we knew she'd be on the transit every day - i know we didn't want her to feel unsafe with so many people around, many of whom might suddenly say "hello!"
the kindness of strangers really helped us, as parents, not feel so quite so isolated, too. though, truth be told...
nothing beats this place for not feeling so crazy anymore!
