My Daughter is 2 years old, and she is the only child. she is afraid of other kids and starts whinning and running to me when they try talking to her or even get near her!!!! When she is around friends and family she goes right off and plays with them. How do I try to get her to interact with other kids that are not family?
I wouldn't worry - we all can't be social butterflies! My first son was the same way - he was more of an observer and watched others.
Now he's in first grade and doing great in school, and has many friends. Your daughter will eventually make friends in her own terms. Just remember being a little reserved is actually a good thing. ;)
She may just need some time to take in everything around her before jumping in to play. My son is that way -- he needs to take a few minutes before he's comfortable being around others (this includes the kids we have been around weekly for the last year and a half). If he's the one that goes up to another, he's fine; but if someone comes to him, he tends to back away.
My 4-year -old is also shy. Most of the time he plays alone and is not that easy to warm up with others. He always clings to me or my husband whenever people start to talk to him. I took him to a child psychologist yesterday and I was assured that it's just a phase and that according to him he will definitely outgrow this behavior. Psychologist however recommend that we continually expose him to different social situations (like playgroups).
There's nothing to worry.
From everything I have seen with my own daughter who is now 3 1/2 and have heard from other parents it is most likely just a phase they go through around that age. My daughter did the exact same thing to the point where I told her if she wasn't going to play we would stop going to the park, McDonalds, play areas etc until she was ready to play. If I were to take a guess too it might have something to do with the first born child. Unfortunately I don't have any advice for you except to say be patient and most likely she will outgrow the phase. I was worried that because I stayed home with my daughter she was going to lag behind in social skills, but to my surprise she hasn't. She just recently started Preschool and is a social butterfly. Good luck.
My daugther was the same way. If we went to the park and there was only one other child there she wouldn't go play. I finally joined some playgroups and started taking her on a regular basis, it has helped out a lot. I am so glad I did it. You should check out www.meetup.com they have many different playgroups in the DFW area.
G.
