Delay in "Play Skills"?

At his age, play skills are fairly well-defined. There is a developmental continuum of "play skills" which start very rote, as in bangning things on the stroller to see what noise it makes and become increasingly abstract and complex from there.

By the age of 2, most children are able to use multiple objects to engage in short, but focused play schemes. For example, a two year old should be well-versed in pretending to "do things" with "real things"... feed a doll with a bottle. Over the next year or so, that play becomes more complex... feed the doll, "burp" the doll and put the doll to sleep. This is known as "linking schemes".

My guess is that your son is using "things" to engage in functional play. He'll pretend to feed himself with the bottle, but isn't yet going from "self" to "doll".

I don't know if you can Google this, but see if you can find any of the Transdisciplinary Play-based Assessment scales online. Toni Linder is brilliant and her descriptions and age ranges are really wonderful! I was trainined in her assessment model and used it to do countless EI evals in my early professional career.

I would ask the evaluators specifically, what did they mean?

First, don't worry about the speech delay. That's very common in bilingual children.

Play skills involve a lot of things, really...but the things they generally test for are whether or not they can stack two blocks, etc, and whether they use toys appropriately given their intended use (does he roll the truck across the table, or throw it across the room?)

Many children are very imaginative at two, and many are not. I really wouldn't be concerned at this point unless YOU notice that he doesn't seem to get interested in toys or play much.

Another thing to evaluate at home (and I am not saying this is you, but it's just something to look at) is screen time. Young toddlers who watch a lot of TV often don't play or talk nearly as much as their none TV peers (although this is not a concrete formula...some children do very well with TV and learn a lot from it. Depends on the child and their attention span, as well as what they are watching.)

Play skills are basically pretending - eg, using a hairbrush as a microphone - or setting up a sequence of events or scenario for toys - for example arranging Teddy bears for a "picnic" and pretending to make and serve them food.

My eight year old daughter is on the autistic spectrum. When she was two, she used to mix up "food" in a bowl and feed it to me, and sing to and feed baby dolls, but that's as far as it has ever gotten. She's much better with athletic and dynamic stuff - her scooter, soccer, swimming, et cetera.

Best of luck to your family, and good for you for getting your kiddo evaluated early.

If you google "what do kids learn while they play" or "Play skills for a 2 year old" you will get a lot of information.

Kids learn a lot while they play and these skills are not something they can learn through sitting or book learning. They need to be able to play and achieve these skills. I suggest that after you do some research that you look at your child in an honest way, like YOU are a teacher, and think about what skills he is supposed to have and what he actually does have. Sometimes the evaluator's don't see the kids in their full range due to the amount of time they are with them plus just by them being there they change the atmosphere where a child might not be comfortable enough to let loose and play. If the eval was done some place not at home they had a lot of new toys they may not have known how to use, they may also have had so many new things they didn't know how to choose a toy.

If you see what they saw I would think you have several options. At 2 he's old enough to go to a Mother's Day Out program at least 1 day per week. They usually have them at local Methodist churches in Oklahoma. They have 2 in my town, one for Tuesday and Thursday from 9am-noon, they do not serve lunch. Then the other one is 10am-3pm Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You provide a lunch for your child and a sleeping mat or sleeping bag for them to rest in.

This will give your child some peers so he can see what other kids his age are doing, it will also help him learn social skills, and it will encourage him to speak/use his words when he hears other kids talking. Not to say that something cognitive or developmental is going on. He may just be delayed because he hasn't been around other kids en masse yet.

Without more specific details, it would be hard to offer suggestions. I van tell you from my own experience that boys are slower to talk than girls. We have two grown children and a six year old boy. Because of the age difference, he has the only child personality. We didn't have kids his age in our neighborhood. I joined MOPS, Mothers of preschoolers. He had the opportunity to play with kids his age. Through contacts at MOPS, I learned of a Kids's Day Out program. He was 2 1/2 at that time. He began to play with Kevin, who is still his best friend. Most kids don't play together until age 3 or so. These two played exclusively with each other the entire year. When he started preschool, he was behind in his social skills. I spoke with his teacher often and learned a lot. All kids are different. He came out of preschool as the most sociable child I have ever seen. He has become the most friendly, outgoing, happy boy. Give him opportunities to interact with kids his own age. I wouldn't worry. I worried constantly from the time he was 2 until he started 1st grade. He is happy, healthy, and friendly with older and younger kids. Give it time and he will be fine. good luck