Quote Originally Posted by kindertime View Post
My suggestion would be that the screen time has more to do with the problem, than attachment parenting, (not that I know what it is, btw.) So much time disengaged from life, she is missing the opportunity to learn to entertain herself. I have found this too. Every child is different, of course, but I have seen a great increase over the years, of children who don't know how to play imaginatively. 4yr olds who do what you describe, pick up toy, shake it or bang it and then put toy down.

Since we don't watch any screens in my house, I figured I had to be Mr. Dressup, myself. Do you remember that show? He spent a great deal of time, playing. He would play with toys and describe what he was doing. Other shows like that too, Sesame street, The Friendly Giant, Mr Rogers, etc. (yah, I'm old) would all show scenes of kids just playing and interacting together.

I would go into the playroom or sit at the table and play. I might talk to the kids about something I was doing, but I might just as well talk to myself, as I was playing. It takes a bit of practise for me at this age, lol. I was modelling the behaviour I wanted to see in the kids. I have also increased the time we spend reading. We talk about what the people in the books are doing and I will often refer back to the books. It allows the kids to use their memories and imagination. Practise makes perfect!

Redhead's suggestion is good too, having an older child who knows how to play would help. But if that isn't an option, you could try being the older child.
Great idea. I do remember Mr. Dress up...though barely. I have no interest in taking on another child and don't know of any older kids hanging around the neighborhood during the day to invite over. I can try to model how the toys can be used. Though, my daughter is doing this already for her to watch it is not as if she is here with a younger child that is not playing on their own and she is mimicking that. My daughter make believe plays, plays house and cares for dolls and on and on. My daughter is obsessed with sheep right now and has been carting around a giraffe calling it her sheep (we have no stuffed sheep) and singing all the sheep songs she knows and playing sheep and DCG just stands there perplexed trying to inform my daughter it isn't a sheep it is a giraffe lol. My daughter finally said, yes 'sheep-giraffe' then went back to playing sheep. I have explained why she is calling her giraffe sheep but she is still stuck on it being a giraffe.

I limit tv to about 20min a day and pretty much only play 'Mother Goose Club' these days. It is a bunch of kids singing and acting out nursery rhymes. My daughter loves it, has memorized dozens and dozens of the rhymes/sings and goes off and sings them and re-enacts them all day. We, of course, read the books and sing the songs a lot too. I find it eerie though how when I turn the show on DCG just sees me pick up the remotes, flies to the couch and lies down. Immobile. My daughter stands watching, spinning and jumping and singing and laughing when it's on...but it just seems like DCG has somehow learned that tv on means lie on couch and disconnect from the world. Could very well be a personality thing but it just kind of weirds me out!