Play Is the “Business” of Children
Part 2 of 3: Toys that help your child learn
by Barbara Bennett, M.D., developmental behavioral pediatrician
and medical director, Kalmanovitz Child Development Center at California Pacific Medical Center
Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, who developed the concept of kindergarten with structured activitybased
learning, says, “Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone
is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.”
Young children do not learn by
words alone. They initially learn to talk
by learning the names of objects and
describing activities they are engaged
in. By age five or so, a child knows what
common objects are like, what they will
do and what the child can do with them.
The child learned these lessons through
playing. As their level of play becomes
more complex, children move from
exploration and object play to language
and symbolic play (pretend play).
Toddlers (18 months-3 years)
Toddlers amuse themselves with
“parallel” play—when kids play next to,
but not with, each other. Blocks with
numbers and letters, cloth books, dress-up
clothes and push-pull toys are great for
toddlers. To help your toddler play:
- Engage the child in conversation,
explaining events going on around
him.
- Select safe toys that encourage
creativity, remembering that ordinary
objects can be “toys” (boxes, hats,
pots and pans, etc).
- Make time for play every day, including
outdoor play.
Barbara Bennett, M.D.,
medical
director, Kalmanovitz
Child Development
Center Preschool (3-5 years)
At this age, children start engaging
in more interactive play. Some ideas
include:
- Set up a pretend post office. Children
can draw pictures for relatives and
friends and mail them (or pretend to).
- Use discarded boxes to build a pretend
house. Drape a sheet to make a tent.
- Set up a pretend grocery store.
- Let the child take part in daily home
activities such as cooking.
Kindergarten
By kindergarten, children are very
involved in interactive play, sharing toys
and taking turns in games. Great activities
for this age include:
- Simple card and board games.
- Playdough, crayons, finger paints and
watercolor paints.
- Simple jigsaw puzzles and large
building blocks.
Parents should keep an eye on
young children as they play, but there’s
no need to be a “helicopter parent”—
hovering over the child at all times.
It can be great fun for parents, though,
to be actively involved in some of their
children’s play.
| To Learn More |
| This article discusses how
toddlers, preschoolers and
kindergarteners learn about
the world around them
through the “business”
of play. To read the first
installment on babies up
to 18 months, visit
www.cpmc.org/pediatrics
and click on the news link
for the January issue of
HealthyKids.
|
|
