We often hear these questions or comments when talking with parents. Each of these questions will be addressed below.
Why should my child play? What is my child learning through play?
- Increases body awareness
- Increases awareness of others
- Introduces compromise and social problem solving
- Promotes conversation skills
- Promotes social skills such as sharing and turn taking
- Practices adult activities
- Promotes flexibility
- Encourages interaction with peers
- Practices observing social cues and following social “rules”
So what is this play thing? It’s supposed to be fun, interactive, and imaginative, right?
That depends on your child and their stage of development. It is a process to teach play. Some children need direct teaching on how to play with toys, games and other people. Play may not come naturally to your child. Your child may not learn play by watching others or being around other children. Your child may need adults to expose them to different forms of play. Your child may need help from adults to grow through the following developmental milestones:
All children learn and grow at their own pace. They have different interests. If a child can play cooperatively, they may still enjoy solitary play. We can teach them to play with toys as well as with other. Play is how children learn about the world and others around them.
Toys for each phase
Unoccupied play: Things to reach for, such as mobiles and soft toys. Things that make noises when touched or kicked like rattles or balls with bells in them.
Solitary play: Cause and effect toys, ramps, noisy toys and pop-up toys.
Parallel play: Cause and effect toys, imagination toys (figurines, blocks) and sensory toys like water beads, kinetic sand and spinning toys.
Associative play: Things with pieces to share such as building toys (blocks, marble towers, or magna-tiles) and figurine toys (farm animals, cars, character toys).
Cooperative play: Same toys they may have used for solitary, parallel and associative play. This is the time to introduce simple board games (such as Lucky Ducks, Candyland or Zingo) and imagination play (toy kitchens, dollhouses, and dress up clothes).
How do I introduce or encourage my child to play?
Observe: take time to see what your child is doing.
Imitate: do what your child is doing.
Narrate: talk about what is happening. use statements. avoid questions.
Model: show other ways to play. if they don’t have interest imitate your child and try modeling with something else.
Questions: limit until associative play.
Reimagine: use their preferred play activities or interests to introduce new ways to play.
Remember, you may have to repeat some play activities, you may need to reconnect with play yourself, let your inhibitions go, be silly and reinforce success.
