Playdate

[Sweetum]

We are having a Playdate tomorrow with another child and this is so our psych and SLP can observe DS in such a scenario. the other child s the same age as DS but very very social. We aren't really experienced in play dates and although she is a regular outdoor playmate for DS we have not really done any indoor structured plates. I am slightly unsure what activities to offer them, and hw to sort of conduct the one hour. Any suggestions would be great. Btw, DS currently plays a few board games but I don't know if the other child does.

[pinkmomagain]

What are the ages of your ds and this girl?

[karstmama]

hmm. when ds did a similar eval, it was in their (the therapists') space, so i'm not much help.

but i think i'd set out some stuff your ds is good at that is age appropriate - for instance, puzzles - and ask friend's mama about some stuff she's good at indoors, like playing kitchen or whatever. i would think they'd want to see how much your ds can follow simple rules of play and how much he engages with friend, so i'd say things they both are strong in would be good to display. so does he just put together the puzzles himself, or get her to help? does he go along with pretending to cut up vegetables like she asked, or line up all the dishes and ignore her? that sort of stuff.

[Sweetum]

Thanks! DS and the kid are about 3.5.
Puzzles and kitchen sounds good. I'll check with the other mom too.

[pinkmomagain]

Things you can offer: some type of craft/coloring/playdoh, building, kitchen/dress up (something that requires imagination/pretend), snack to eat. I would maybe try to think of something that would require taking turns...even if it's setting out just a few crayon colors so that they would have to ask the other for a certain color, wait, etc. I think parallel play is still pretty common at this age, so I'd be looking at creating some situations for the two of them to be communicating and interacting.

[annex]

I agree with games that require cooperation or taking turns, recognizing that you may have to act as a game leader to keep it going back and forth. Do you have train tracks? You could set it up so DS gets handed one piece to put down, then the friend gets a piece to put down, then continuing, taking turns, maybe letting them take over once they have the pattern down.