Learning to Play

Some people think of play as frivolous and childish, something that is unimportant and reserved only for children to occupy their time. However, the opposite is true: play is vital. Children learn so many things through their games, and playing is also vital for learning language and social skills.

Without play a child has limited use of language and few skills in making and maintaining friendships. Rules and negotiation play a large part in children’s play. As with all development there are stages that children go through with their play and it becomes more complex with age. Here are some broad outlines of typical behaviour at certain ages:

6 months
Children explore objects with a limited number of movements – pushing, grasping and tasting them – to see the effect that this has.

1 Year
Children now enjoy sound-making toys like rattles, and hiding/finding objects. They have a greater understanding of how to make objects work. They don’t put as many objects in their mouth at this stage. Peek-a-boo games are tremendous fun and develop their turn-taking skills.

1 year 6 Months
At this stage throwing toys down from the high chair or push chair (casting) is highly entertaining, at least for the little one! It is used as a game or to reject objects. Children begin to relate objects together and pretend with them, e.g. putting a cup on a saucer and stirring an empty cup with a spoon. Experimenting with movements continue and push and pull toys are frequently enjoyed at this age.

2 Years
Pretend play develops further at this age with children copying household activities, such as cleaning, cooking etc.. Although they are fascinated with each other, often at 2 years old children enjoy playing near, rather than directly with, each other. Construction toys and building bricks become a greater part of play as do toys such as model cars and bikes.

3 Years
By 3 years old children join in active make-believe play with other children, acting out a variety of roles and stories. These may involve repeating things seen on television or read in books, or even real-life situations. Toys are more easily shared at this stage as children begin to play with one another rather than alongside others. Objects can easily fulfil a variety of roles in the play now, e.g. a brick can be a cup, car, bag, etc.

4 Years
Complicated make-believe play involving clearly defined roles and dressing up are typically a large part of play at this age. Rules and roles are signalled both explicitly and by the words/dialogue used during playing, e.g. “I am Daddy and you must eat all your food up before you go and play.” Children understand the need for turn-taking and begin to play games with rules, such as board games. Construction play has developed too – now children plan and build objects rather than just putting random pieces together.