A guide for parents on how playing with your child can help to develop their language skills.
How play helps your child
- Play helps to strengthen the bond between you and your child.
- Play helps your child's brain development, attention and listening skills and imagination.
- Play helps your child to explore and learn about the world, make friends and learn to talk.
Ideas for play with toddlers
Let toddlers choose what to play with. This way they will learn more and play with it for longer. Children learn by watching others play as well as playing by themselves. Having too many toys out at once may overwhelm your child. Having just one or two toys to play with at a time helps develop their attention skills.
Children at this stage often play next to other children but not with them.
Ideas for play with pre-schoolers
Pre-schoolers love to pretend when they play. Give your child lots of opportunities for them to do this, for example, having a tea party with dolly and teddy or dressing up with friends as dragons and princesses.
Sometimes the best pretend play is with boxes when children can really use their imagination. One object can lead to a whole new world of fun. A yoghurt pot could be a cup or a telephone, or can be used as a bath toy, in the sandpit or to make music.
Pre-schoolers are starting to make up stories with their toys. Copying things they see happening every day is part of this. Your child may drive the toy car around, wash it, fill it with petrol, and then drive it to the shops.
Playing together helps pre-schoolers to learn to take turns, share, negotiate and make up after arguments. It is important to give your child opportunities to do this by letting them play with other children.
Children at this stage benefit from playing together with other children.
Top tips
- Try to make time to play every day.
- Play can happen anywhere, in the bath, in the park, in the shops and with anything, cardboard boxes, tins of food, saucepans and spoons.
- Get down on the floor with your child and join in their play. Show them new ways to play with toys.
- If children enjoy a game, they will want to play it again and again. Doing this helps them to learn.
- When you play with your child, make sure the TV, radio , or computer is off.
- Talk about what they are doing. Don’t forget to name what they are looking at. This helps your child learn new words.