Hi there. I'm not a mama myself but I've been nannying for a little boy for the last three years. He was born three months premature and had a lot of early struggles, but has thankfully has overcome a lot and is four years old now. He's a pretty well-behaved little guy, but he's actually difficult to nanny for because he seems so disinterested in everything. Unlike most babies that I've cared for, he didn't experiment with babbling noises or mimic what you said to him when he was little (his speech was delayed). If you put a toy in front of him, he typically wouldn't poke at it or pick it up, and if you put a crayon in his hand and showed him how to scribble, he wouldn't copy that either. Now that he's four, I am having a hard time getting him to play alone with toys or books for short periods of time. Sometimes I'll suggest that he go play with his little peddle car in the yard, but he'll just sit in it looking zoned out, not moving or making "beep beep!" noises or anything. I feel terrible for him because it seems like he doesn't know how to play! I looked up some age appropriate activities and tried to get him to build a tower with lego blocks, but for the most part he just stares at the blocks as if unsure of what to do with them - not even touching them to try - even when I show him an example, and sometimes just says to me "you do it." Today I brought over two chairs and a blanket and showed him how to drape the blanket to make a little fort. When I disassembled my example and told him it was his turn, he didn't seem to understand the concept, and after I made it for him again he didn't seem eager to check it out or experiment by crawling inside it like I'd expect most children his age to do. Later after I read him a book, we went back to the beginning and I asked him questions about the illustrations (ie. "What is teddy doing in this picture?") In one illustration, the teddy was reading a book. I asked, "What do you think teddy is reading about?" and I expected some kind of imaginative kid answer. But he had no response at all, even after multiple prompts and a lot of time waiting. Finally when I suggested that teddy might've been looking at pictures in his book, my little guy said, "I want to see inside the book," which indicates to me that he was probably perplexed by the whole use-your-imagination-and-make-something-up nature of my question. He couldn't physically see inside the teddy's book, so he had no answer.
Am I just having unreasonable expectations that he should be using his imagination more than he is? He seems totally dependant on being entertained by whichever adult he is with. What activities can I give to him to encourage independent play, curiosity and creativity? I see all these great ideas for preschoolers on websites but none of them ever pan out because he doesn't respond to/engage with them.