Everyday Play

There is so much research about how wonderful play is for children’s development. For parents of typical kids, this is great news! Just let them play on their own and they’re learning…awesome!

But

For Mikey, some types of playing were tricky.  He needed some guidance and prompting to learn to paint and play with blocks. In fact, this set of blocks came with cards. The cards had images and Mikey would build a copy of each image with blocks.  This is still ‘play’ but he needed a little bit of structure to make it work.

You can also create play schedules which guide kids on which toys to choose and how to use each toy and then you can fade the schedules over time.  If you make a play schedule, always end each activity with cleaning up and putting away the toys so your kids are learning to clean up after themselves as well. 

Don’t be discouraged if your child needs help developing these play skills…they’re still learning and growing through play.

And

When you play with them, you have opportunities for social interaction, modeling the use of language and connecting with your little one. That’s huge!