Is repetitive play normal-including frustrations with this? I'll explain.

[A1983]

My 22 month old daughter is in my opinion very good at communicating, verbally/facially and she can 'count' to 10, name colours, play games with joy, and does imitate behaviours like feeding her toys with a drink etc. She can say 3-4 worded sentences and loves people in social situations like at the checkout-'hello's' all round! And appears to have a fantastic memory!

One thing I've noticed though is she can spend a very long time putting an object inside another, taking it out, putting it back in...and she'll do this with such concentration and is silent throughout. For eg putting a block into a stacking cup repeatedly in one episode..then her bunny into stacking cup...and she's been doing this for about 5 months. She can do this for 30 minutes. She's also become frustrated recently and shrieks and screams angrily and I don't really see why....it's when she's playing-so today she had a wet wipe on her bunny (trying to wrap it up as a blanket?) Or she'll scream at her toys she's squeezed into a box-they do fit so it's not as if one won't go in.

I'm intrigued as to what this could mean and if I have anything to worry about? It's an every play time occurance.

 

[A1983]

If I'm over analysing things then that's fine to say! I wouldn't have asked but her baby friends don't do anything similar and it's natural to have niggles at times when your child can't tell you why they're doing something! As I said im intrigued more than worried as such

 

[SarahBear]

I wouldn't worry. Kids learn through repetition. Violet has been obsessed with Curious George and his trips to the hospital (happens in two different books) and has been acting it out in her play for a couple months now. Her interest in Curious George started at least 6 months ago though. She even frequently refers to her dad as "man with yellow hat," and has recently started calling me "nurse" or "nurse Carol" on occasion. She does seem to be adding some variety to her play, but it's still focused on curious george getting a tummy ache from swallowing a jigsaw puzzle or curious George hurting his leg.

 

[A1983]

Ha ha Sarah that is actually delightful! I love the fact she calls you nurse Carol! Bless their imaginations. Ok well thanks for the reply. I suppose it's only been since she's started getting frustrated daily I looked into it a bit more as I want to help her, she gets vevery angry and stiffens/screams a few times a day! I do intervene but as I said I just can't see what's annoying her..

 

[SarahBear]

It's more delightful if you aren't having to play it for the 10 millionth time! Anyway, how verbal is she? I assume from your post she's unable to express what is frustrating her. If you knew what was bothering her, at least you could help to teach her to ask for help, but in your situation, I suppose all you can do is label her emotions, help her handle them and perhaps force her to take a break from the source of the frustration if the need arises.

 

[sezzolou]

My 22 month olds favourite thing is lining things up...very precisely lol. He's been doing it for quite a while and gets upset if one block/animal/etc is out of place or facing the wrong way. Nursery staff mentioned it at parents evening last week (they had taken pics for his scrap book of a really really long line of blocks he'd constructed) they said it's quite normal and its the first step to learning maths, same with putting things in bags/boxes repeatedly which he also likes to do. He does get upset and frustrated sometimes when's he's doing it and if I try to get involved he doesn't like it.

 

[Literati_Love]

It sounds to me like a good thing. To me it means:

A) she has a good attention span, and
B) she is going through some sort of 'learning' phase.

My guess is she is increasing her visual-spatial awareness and her little brain is working hard at improving her new skills. I wouldn't be worried at all!

 

[A1983]

Thank you everyone! Very reassuring and insightful our crazy beautiful little beings!

 

[dom85]

My five year old did similar things when he was that age, he also lined things up and grouped different types of cars/trucks etc together. He wouldn't scream as such but he didn't like it of you touched them or tried to help him with anything while he was doing it.

He really excels in maths at school now so I'm guessing it was a good thing. He also still groups toys together when he plays now.

 

[catty]

lucas has recently started doing this. he has a game of animal csrds and he will line the cards up look at them all and then hide them somewhere (behind the sofa, in a big toy etc) then he will do it all over again. and again and again. im personally just enjoying the peace haha!!

 

[Cattia]

Google 'play schemas', it explains the different ways that children play and what the different stages of play teach them. Repetitive play is a normal part of their development.

 

[SarahBear]

Google 'play schemas', it explains the different ways that children play and what the different stages of play teach them. Repetitive play is a normal part of their development.

Is that a UK term? The first search result was from an article on the cbeebies website.

 

[Cattia]

Yes, actually it's surprisingly hard to find stuff on google thinking about it, it's an educational thing, not sure if it's specifically UK? Childminders and pre school talk about them. I'll try to find a link.

 

[Cattia]

https://www.nature-play.co.uk/blog/schemas-in-childrens-play

This website has quite a nice summary. My childminder had a programme where she could tick a questionnaire about my DS behaviour and it would work out his preferred schemas and suggest activities she could do with him.