Do any of you ladies have any tips on helping your toddler overcome shyness with new people? LO is a big time Chatty Cathy at home with us but clams up when new people are around. She now has 50 words (17 months old), points, nods, and follows simple commands. We had a doctor appointment today with her neurologist (hereditary seizure disorder that is now under control - so this was not our ped who knows us well) and she refused to speak or follow directions. To the point that the doctor obviously didn't believe us and asked us to videotape her talking to prove that she talks, then she asked us to practice getting her to follow commands and she even recommended considering early intervention!!! Her daycare teachers always tell us about how much she is talking at school, follows directions well etc. and we obviously see this at home too. This experience was kind of embarrassing, because we KNOW she does all of these things, she just totally froze up at the doctor's office. How do we help LO be more comfortable around strangers? Any tips or suggestions are welcome.
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I'd be really annoyed with that doctor. LO went for her 2.5 year checkup, and the doctor asked her to do a few things, but she gets really shy around new people (especially if they are asking her to do things). Instead, i just repeated the question and she did whatever it was. Is your LO comfortable following directions if you ask her yourself?
There really isn't much you can do. Sometimes i'll just hold her hand and make sure she feels secure, and let her know that the person we're with is our friend and wants to help. It's hard having shy/introverted kids!
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I think that doctor is being very unrealistic! Lots of little kids are shy like that; DD takes awhile to warm up to new people, particularly adults and she's got a lot of words for her age that not very many people get to hear!
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We moved across the country last year, and our daughter was shy to the point of clingy for the entire year at every social activity we went too. Then we went home for the summer and when we got back her in August she was no longer so clingy. I don't know what changed, but now she's a chatty Cathy with everyone in our circle.... most of the time. Time of day and whether she napped that day still plays a roll.
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Sounds just like how my daughter was! She was extremely verbal at a young age, but you would never guess bc she would only talk to immediate family and clam up in strange settings.
Our daughter didn't start coming out of her shell until she hit 2.5 years old. Prior to that, she was so shy that she wouldn't even want to be in the same room as other people... for example, friends will come over and everyone will be hanging out in the living room, she would go to the playroom and refuse to even step foot in the other room with all the other people.
We continued to just live our lives, and would encourage her to at least say hi/bye to people (I think this is a courtesy thing and very important to me - being shy doesn't give her a free pass at ignoring ppl), continued to expose her to social settings and she eventually got more and more comfortable around others. She's still on the shy side, but a lot faster to warm up now. Having her in preschool definitely helped too. We put her in preschool at 20 months. She is almost 4 now.
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