Took DS (4 in June) to a psychologist recently over various concerns. One concern was him not talking much with kids at preschool. He'll do a range of activities, art, building blocks, etc, and says he likes school, but compared to other kids he's usually in a corner off by himself making up stories (talking to himself). He doesn't do the kind of interactive play I see other kids his age there doing (like all climbing together on a play structure taking turns jumping off or just climbing around smiling at eachother). At all. And he definitely doesn't have a pal the way many of his age group do, someone they say hi and bye to and that they tend to travel with around the preschool.
He does play a few tag type games when others are, but doesn't initiate those things. And he does try to interact with a group of older 5 year old boys a bit, but they don't include him and his social skills in attempting play with them are way too poor to gain him entry to their clique.
The psych just watched him play -- she was like, "wow he's incredibly imaginative, is there anyone else at his school who does anything like this?" And the answer is no, some of the girls play house/cooking etc but not fast paced intricate stories going on. The pysch basically said there's probably no one there that thinks the way he does. We need to try to find him kids that are as creative for him to be around, so that there's something for him to do with another kid that's a joint process where there can be some kind of back and forth. He can currently do that somewhat with adults (though has to lead nearly always which is still a issue) but not so far with any kids.
I haven't talked to the psych more about it than really brief comments that could be made in DS's presence so still looking forward to getting more insight.
It was great to have someone easily "get him", in a way that actually resonates with what I experience. In contrast, one of the teachers at preschool sums up his talking to himself a lot by saying, "he's really auditory", and the 2nd teacher at preschool sees the same thing and says, "he really likes flowers" (because he hangs out in the garden area as it's both quiet and near where the 5 year olds congregate).
So that's a plug for just going for a play session with a child pyschologist to just get input on what they see. They can't directly help with what I already know, that finding DS friends is a problem, but just hearing they agree it's likely a mismatch between kids and not necessarily anything more serious, that was nice.
Polly
