As parents, we are always looking for ways to support our children’s growth and development. One of the most fun and effective ways to achieve this is through play. Playtime not only promotes joint/shared attention between you and your little one but also offers cognitive, social-emotional, and language benefits. When you book a consultation with us, we will explore and model how playing with specific toys can foster your child’s overall development and we’ll recommend some fantastic options available at our trusted online shop.
When you get down on the floor and engage in play with your little one, you’re showing your child that they are important to you and that you cherish your time together. This helps to build their confidence and sense of self, and enhances the parent-child bond.
When sharing in playtime with your little one, it’s important to make sure it’s all about the play. That means your phone is out of sight, chores are out of your mind, the TV is off, and all other distractions are as non-existent as possible. By showing your child you are all in at playtime, you’re helping them remain engaged for longer periods of time than if they were playing alone with the toy (or even if you were just half heartedly playing while checking your phone or running down the hall to throw the towels in the dryer). When they’re engaged and attentive, this is when the best learning happens! You can simultaneously work on communication and cognitive skills simply by “thinking aloud.” For example, if you’re doing a puzzle with your little one, you’re modeling your problem solving thought process with short, clear phrases, such as, “hmmm, does it go here (model trying to fit the puzzle piece in the wrong slot)?” “No, not there. Maybe here (model placing it in the right slot),” then saying, “yay!” Conversely, you can also work on building your child’s receptive language (how they process and respond to spoken words) by asking them for the cow or the sheep (use visual cues, such as pointing to the object you are asking for, f this is an emerging skill for your child).
Playtime helps to boost your little ones social-emotional development as well by helping them learn how to share, take turns and wait for their turn. When you and your child build a simple block tower together, these skills are naturally being worked on as your child stacks a block, then you stack a block, and so on. Building with blocks also helps children develop their perceptual motor skills and spatial-awareness.
We could go on and on with examples of how to utilize specific toys when playing with your child, but it would end up being a novel and this is just a blog post. Contact us today and we’ll go over everything you need to know about playtime with your little one.