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Children require many hundreds, if not thousands, of positive face-to-face interactions with their parents or caregivers … parent-child or caregiver-child play activities are an excellent way to provide these interactions … In this article I would like to highlight for you the parental skills for playing and connecting with children that I outline in my book, Play Skills for Parents: Connecting with Your Child Through Play …

There are so many reasons why parents and caregivers should teach their children about feelings and emotions. Children are not born knowing the names for all their feelings they will experience as they grow and parents and caregivers can play a very important role in helping their children develop a feelings or emotional vocabulary.

Parents may be unaware of an important concept that is fundamental in the field of play therapy. Play therapists know that there are two basic ways to interact with children: directive or nondirective. This is something I have explained elsewhere … but because it is such an important concept, I want to review it in this article.

All children love to play. Play is generally seen as a pastime, providing amusement and entertainment for children. But play is much more than that. Play is powerful! It is fundamental and necessary for children’s healthy development physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially.

Whether indoors or outdoors, unstructured free play for children is encouraged by many child development and health professionals. There have been concerns recently that children have not been able to participate as much in unstructured free play as they have in past with negative impacts on their physical and mental health … So, how can parents support their children’s unstructured free play? Let’s have a look at some helpful tips for parents to support this type of play for their children …