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Health & Fitness

PLAY IS LEARNING!

Pretend play is an important component of your child’s cognitive and social development. Your child processes his/her feelings and understanding of the world as he/she plays.

“Young children who learn through play are more capable of making their own decisions, advocating for themselves and using creativity to solve problems as they grow. Play is essential to the development of your child’s brain, triggering trillions of neural connections that form the basis of healthy cognitive function and mastery of your child’s physical world,” says Dr. Kyle Pruett, a Yale University child psychiatrist and consultant to The Goddard School.

Infants…

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  • engage in play by responding to sounds, then by following objects and people with their eyes.
  • demonstrate their memory by repeating an action that previously made you laugh.
  • explore hand-held toys or rattles – turning them over, banging them, shaking them and maybe even tasting them.
  • learn to roll over and sit up, creating choices as they discover how to move. They take aim at their own source of interest.
  • learn self-discovery and motion when toys are placed within and outside their reach.
  • want to examine objects as well as talk to them and follow your lead. Say, “clap,” with a smile on your face and your baby claps and smiles, too.

One-Year-Old children…

  • play with water, smell a flower (which is not as easy as you may think) and recognize animals like the ones from their mobiles.
  • join in the conversation with simple words and phrases and respond to “bye, bye” with an unsolicited wave.
  • demonstrate their knowledge – pointing to any­thing you ‘name’ such as ears, even when they cannot see them because they’ve learned to trust their own experiences.
  • play with you and imitate your actions. Watch them reflect your love with a doll providing “hugs and kisses” and ‘helping,’ the way you have guided them.

Two-Year-Old children…

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  • demonstrate independence to determine their limits as well as when and how to play.
  • speak on a play phone and answer questions such as “Why?”
  • solve simple puzzles, hold crayons in their hands, hum and sing as they play as well as join activities without prompting.
  • enjoy using their imagination – pouring from one cup to another and manipulating play dough.
  • begin to understand the concepts of sharing and waiting their turn.
  • communicate in short sentences and demonstrate their personal understanding of the world while playing.
  • can multi-task: they can sing and perform the motions to a song or converse while they paint.

Three-Year-Old children…

  • ‘work’ while playing. They explore roles, feelings and ideas in an un­inhibited environment. They practice various emotions to determine how they fit into their personality.
  • have a large vocabulary and under­stand the intonations of language.
  • begin to connect the spoken word to written language and can orally retell a favorite story.
  • are interested in cause and effect; and can identify colors, shapes, sizes and weights.
  • play a role or game for long periods of time until they have exhausted their curiosity.
  • need their space. Let them invite you into their play.

Four-Year-Old children…

  • recognize how objects and people are the same and different simulta­neously; and can appreciate these attributes.
  • begin to recognize concepts. For in­stance, taking a bath develops their understanding of water – floating, sinking, absorbing and dissolving.
  • use their play experiences to develop identifiable knowledge – they can match by relationships and verbalize invisible con­cepts, such as time and calendars.
  • no longer need to see or hold a toy to play; they can recall previous experiences and use their knowledge.
  • can name instruments, move to the beat of music and sing along.
  • have phonemic awareness and view the written word as magical – writing a word is play!

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