Encouraging children to play

Play is fun. It has a significant impact on the development of speech, language and communication skills.

Play helps children to learn the skills they will need to be well-adjusted and balanced children and adults.

Research shows that developments in children’s play skills are linked to developments in language and cognition. Parents are often their first teachers and best playmates.

Types, play

There are a variety of play a child can be engaged in. These include:

People Play – Games without toys e.g. tickling

Sensory and Exploratory Play – Helps children to learn about the world around them. E.g. water play, sand play

Cause and Effect Play – musical toys such as drums Physical Play – develops movement and coordination e.g. play ball, hide-and-seek, slides. Construction Play – building towers with blocks.

Creative Play – Finger-painting - dipping fingers/hands in paint or mud and making patterns by stamping them on pieces of paper.

Pretend Play – develops understanding e.g. pretending to drink from an empty cup, pretending to use doll as baby and feeding it.

Importance of play

The importance of play cannot be underestimated in helping with the development of the following skills:

Language skills: non-verbal skills, understanding of language, use of language (expressive language skills), narrative skills.

Social interaction skills

Reasoning skills

Imaginative skills

The ability to predict how someone might feel or react to something

Sequencing skills

How to encourage children to play

When playing with a baby, he/she must be awake, alert, calm and happy.  Babies don’t learn when they are tired.

Talk to the baby, cuddle them, sing songs and play with their fingers and toes.

Get down to the child’s level (i.e. sitting or kneeling on the floor) so that your faces are at the same height.

Follow the child’s interest. Have a choice of toys (these can include a ball, doll, puzzle, teddy bear, Lego, etc.) on the floor. Allow the child to choose what to play with.

Follow their lead and learn to respond to their cues and their level of interest. When they have chosen a toy, do not take the toy away from them.

Instead, allow them to hold it but try to find something else related to that toy so that you can enter into an interaction. For example, if the child picks building blocks, you can take one too and imitate what the child is doing with their block.

Demonstrate what can be done with the toys or copy what the child is doing but adapt it slightly so that it is more appropriate play.  Make sure the child is still in control (or you do not take over the activity).

Keep your language simple when commenting on what the child is doing. If the child is not yet using language, use single words to describe what they are doing (e.g. ‘ball’, ‘throw’, ‘catch’)

Try not to encourage inappropriate play behaviours such as throwing toys. Sometimes it is helpful if you offer alternative activities that may incorporate the same sensation but in a more acceptable way such as throwing a ball into a bucket in a turn-taking activity.

If a child says a word or phrase during play, repeat what is said and add another word to it so as to build on their language, For example, if the child says “ball”, you can add to what he/she says by saying “throw ball” or “catch ball”.

Caregivers are encouraged to engage their children in play because of the excellent benefits derived from it.

The writer is with the University of Ghana/Korle Bu Teaching Hospital