Play

A boy is on the beach. He squats down to fill his bucket with sand. A while later, a little girl appears alongside him. She too has a bucket, but also some moulds and a scoop. She digs and fills, tips out and shapes. They don’t talk. They barely acknowledge each other’s presence. They simply […]

Here is a boy. He is doing his own thing. His sister is nearby and they are happy to be together. They trade toys, they share materials, they talk, but they don’t co-operate, they aren’t working towards a shared goal.  This is associative play. It is the fifth of the Six Stages of Play. The

Onlooker play, a term that might seem contradictory at first, plays an integral role in your child’s developmental journey. While it might appear as though your child is merely standing on the sidelines, there’s a lot more happening beneath the surface. This stage, marked by observation without direct participation, has myriad benefits for your child’s

Have you heard of small world play? In this type of play, children can build, create and imagine, all in a small, safe and manageable ‘world’ of their own making. It’s imaginative play, only it’s more contained, often in a space that your child can return to again and again. What is small world play?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by toy clutter in your home? Ever felt exasperated that your child never seems to play with any of their toys? It doesn’t have to be like this! Through simple toy rotation, you can reduce clutter and increase your child’s creativity and focus. Read on to find out how: Contents:

Open-ended play is brilliant. It encourages experimentation and perseverance and keeps your children busy for hours, buying you the time to have five minutes’ rest and a nice cup of tea. In this guide we’ll look at how you can get more of it in your life. What is open-ended play? As a child, do you

Symbolic play is the highest form of play. Your child has learnt to play with ideas rather than physical objects.  But how did she get there?  In a previous post we saw that it all starts with imitative play. We saw imitation is a skill that children have to learn. It’s not something they are born with.

Imaginative play – any game that begins with ‘let’s pretend’, dressing-up and make-believe – is a powerful way for children to learn that our thoughts and feelings may be different from someone else’s, helping them to develop a sense of empathy and emotional intelligence. Here’s our at-a-glance guide to imaginative play for the under-fives: Contents:

Is your child always calm and fully engaged in her play? Or does she flit from one toy to the next, rarely focusing for long? Have you ever considered that she might have too many toys? In a recent study, researchers at the University of Toledo discovered that too many toys can be distracting. At first

Is your child bored of her toys? Are you tempted to buy something new to add some excitement to the toy box? Before you take out the credit card, take a look at what you’ve already got. Can you help your child to see her toys in a new light, to see new combinations and