shy/unsocialable toddler

[december]

Hi, my DS (23) mnths is still so shy or unsocialable..He goes to child care and he is fine off playing, but when we go to play group once a week, he still needs be by his side.. I am hoping he will grow out of this soon, as it is hard work & i am not enjoying the play group that much, as he doesnt seem relaxed

Gee i hope it gets better..

[{sarah}]

We had the same thing, a very nervous unsociable shy little man. Then one day he seemed to magically come out of it. I think he was about 26 months when it happened, it was like suddenly he decided people were actually ok! On the advice of a good friend, we never made a big deal out of it. If he wanted to sit with me then that was fine. We never pushed him to go play or move away from us, as hard as it was sometimes. We also didn't use the term "shy" because it could have made things worse - him thinking well I am shy, because mum says so. Instead if someone ased if he was shy I would tell them that Alexzander just likes to check things out before going to play.

Now he loves to go off playing with his friends from mum's group & is happy to go playing when we are visiting with friends that don't have kids. Sometimes he's still a bit wary, we have one friend he hides from for the first 10 minutes he's here!