Help With 2 Year Old DCB

[Puddleduck]

Hello everyone! I was hoping to get some ideas or suggestions please.
My daycare consists of 2 girls who are both 17 months old, a girl who will be 3 in March, and a boy who will be 3 in May. They have all been together for a long time and have a wonderful dynamic. Three weeks ago I added a new child to the mix, a little girl who will also be 3 in March.
The 2 older girls get along fabulously. Developmentally they are identical and have very similar interests. However, my little dude is really struggling with the addition. Developmentally he's quite behind and he plays differently than the girls. They're really into dramatic play and they always include him but his language skills are delayed and he hasn't quite figured out pretend play yet. He's getting left behind because of it and it's making him sad and he has started acting out.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to make him feel more included. The girls are REALLY trying and they do want to play with him. Any help would be really appreciated!

[Pestle]

Can you provide a general guideline for the dramatic play and make sure it includes physical objects that he can be in charge of?

For instance: When they arrive, you can have a grocery store set up, with play food, a counter, and a shopping basket. He can be in charge of the counter and packing up the food into the basket. Another day, he can be the prop manager at the dress-up bin. Another day, he can be in charge of currying the toy ponies or walking the stuffed dogs or whatever else you have in the toy bins.

[Puddleduck]

I'll definitely give that a try! Unfortunately, cognitively, I don't think he'll understand. When he plays with the girls he mostly just follows them around and he has a very hard time understanding instructions and directions.

[Pestle]

How are his gross motor skills? Are you alternating between free play & something to exercise the skills that he does have? For instance, we use this one often. I like it because the kids have to:
1. Wait for their turn
2. Listen for their name to be called
3. Pay attention to when the verse changes so they know the song is over

I start by telling the kids to show me their flappy elephant ears (wiggle palms on the side of head), their fringe-y elephant tail (wiggle fingers behind back) and their swinging elephant trunk (swing arm in front of face). Then I sing the first verse, ending with:

"She had such enormous fun that she called for JIMMY elephant to come," and grab the hand of the kid with the shortest attention span. Once all the kids are marching in a circle with me, we end with "They had such enormous fun, but the spider's web broke and they all fell down!" and we sit down.

I use short song-and-dance interludes like this when I have kids who are cognitively behind and liable to get frustrated/act out when the others leave them out of free play.

[Ariana]

I guess I would just encourage him to do something else. "Hmmm it looks like you aren't having any fun, is there something else you can play with? Sometimes friends can play with different things..." that sort of thing. My eldest is 7 and when she has her friends over my 4 yr old cannot keep up but she tries and gets angry and frustrated. I don't want to impede my older daughters play so I explain it that way. I also try to get them to do things they all can enjoy as well like a board game etc.

I think it is pretty awesome you have kids this young engaging in dramatic play so well! The kids I have are no where near this stage but are similar ages!