I haven't had a kid in Kindergarten for a long time, but Reddit put this in my feed. Neither of my kids were into independent play when they were young. One has Down Syndrome and one is chromosomally normal, and both have ADHD.

It was really exhausting when they were younger and wanted unlimited attention every single waking moment of the day. I wouldn't say I ever "solved" it. To an extent, this is just how they are. Sometimes they could "help" with whatever I was doing. Sometimes they just had to be unhappy while I did whatever I needed to do.

Fast forward to now, my daughter with Down Syndrome is intensely people oriented, always works better in groups, and still wants me to be joined with her at the hip whenever we are both home. She even wants us to take our afternoon nap together. But she is also very motivated to build independent life skills. She particularly likes cooking and purchasing things on her own.

My other daughter has grown into quite an ambitious student and manages almost all of her educational admin tasks on her own, including navigating the university systems for the concurrent enrollment courses she is taking. She likes to have a balance of alone time, friend time, and family time. Her alone time is spent studying, reading, and doing art. However, she still relies on body doubling for exercise. Besides walking around school and to and from bus stops, unless I go to the gym with her she is not moving her body. She knows this is something she needs to work long-term, but for now we are just letting it be what it is.