My 1/y and 10/m-old daughter likes putting up building blocks. But she always put the blocks with same shape together. For example, she will put a round building block above another round one, and if you put a square one above a round one, she would say “you are wrong”. Nobody taught her this before. Is she inflexible, and doesn’t understand changes?
Nope just a typical toddler that likes order to her things. My son lined up his matchbox cars in a very specific manner all had to face the same direction etc. It used to make me giggle when I'd turn one the opposite way as he was distracted he'd come back to it and turn it the "right way". It will change as she grows and plays more interactively with things.
I suggest that she is just now learning about shapes and feels best when same shapes are together. As she gets more comfortable with the shapes and blocks she'll branch out.
My response to her would be something along the line of "I'm not wrong. I'm different. That's OK. We;ll do it your way now."
A side note: one does have to be comfortable with one thing before one can be flexible with other things. We usually learn to be comfortable with one thing at a time. Once we're comfortable with several we're more apt to be willing to try others.
No, she is not inflexible. She is demonstrating that she has created something that works for her. In a couple of weeks, she will likely move on to something else. There is no right or wrong way with building blocks--at any age! So no need to worry!
Ahhhh.....she's just at that age where she's almost completely certain that the world revolves around her and that she is competely right about everything. She should grow out of this in about 18 yrs or so. LOL
OK, to be honest, kids this age are really very self absorbed and their own little world is all that matters. She'll get to about age three and realize others have opinions and ideas too......she may not LISTEN to them....but she'll recognize that they HAVE them.
Babies like repetition. So much is foreign to them that when they find something they know and understand, it brings them comfort...I don't think it's anything to worry about, but if you are still concerned, ask your pediatrician.
Good luck.
-M
Littles need lots of repetition to gain the mastery that satisfies them, and will generally do the same activity repeatedly until they reach a sense of completion. There's a lot of persistence and patience in that. Then they'll become curious about what else they can do. Your daughter's play is developmentally appropriate for her age.
I like Marda's suggested response. Perhaps it could even be put in positive terms, like "Your way is right. This way is right, too, it's just different. That's okay, let's do it your way!"
My now 24 year old daughter was always like this as a child. It's very important to her to do things The Right Way, and she has a very strong sense of aesthetics. How things look is a big deal to her. (As a teen, she kept wanting to rearrange my kitchen, insisting, "This looks better over there," no matter how often I said, "But I use it over here!") I remember being the same way as a kid. Some people grow out of it; some don't.
