Developing Play
Why is play important?
Play gives children a wonderful opportunity to learn. Children don’t realise it, but play is helping to improve their motor skills, their social interaction skills, turn taking and copying sounds and actions. It can also help develop understanding, use of language and gesture, concentration and listening skills and imagination. All this happens when children are having a good time playing and that’s why play is such a great tool for learning.
Play and Language
- Play encourages taking turns. In order to become successful communicators, children must get involved in two-way interactions. You can build ‘your turn, then my turn’ into almost any play activity.
- Play is easy to respond to, even without words. Children with limited language skills can still join in with play. If you have children who have limited language or are reluctant talkers you can use lots of play activities which involve physical movements like ‘if you’re happy and you know it’.
- Play involves all our senses. Children are more likely to learn and remember new words if they use more than one of their senses. For example, they are more likely to remember a new food if they have been given the change to feel it, smell it, taste it rather than just hearing a word to describe that food. All the senses send different messages to the brain and this helps the child remember them.
- Play uses repetition. Play gives us the perfect opportunity to repeat actions, words and phrases again and again. This in turn will help children learn and remember new words and give them a better chance of being able to re-use as part of their own vocabulary.
Top Tips
- Find 15-20 minutes twice a day in a quiet place for ‘special play time’ to build these top tips into your daily routine.
- Chose the right toys: Pick a few motivating toys that you know the child likes to play with. It may be really useful to have two of the same toy so you can show the child how to play with toys if they are finding play tricky.
- Get down on the child’s level: Make sure your child can easily see you and make sure you look interested in what they are doing. This shows you are ready to play.
- Encourage the child to copy: You could do this by saying, ‘your turn to drive the car’, taking the child’s hand and placing it on the car, then moving it across the floor.
- Use simple comments but avoid questions. Asking lots of questions can be overwhelming. Instead making simple comments that match the child’s level of understanding.
- Encourage turn taking. In small group, play a game like ‘Pop Up Pirate’ where each child gets a turn.
What if the child finds play hard?
If a child does not show much interest in play, you can start by copying what the child is doing, then adding another activity when the time feels right. For example, if the child is spinning the wheels of a car, you could spin them too. Then turn the car the right way up and run it along the floor saying, ‘brrm, brrm’. If the child likes opening and closing doors on toys, start with this and then add toy figures and make them open the door and pretend to get in the car.
Most importantly enjoy yourselves and have fun!