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.
Blog
Free Play! Tips for Parents on Children’s Unstructured Play
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 …
Let’s Get Back to Basics: The Describing Skill
I teach parents about two separate roles they can take on when playing with their children. One role is a Directive Role, where parents structure the playtime to meet the needs of their child. The other role is a Nondirective Role, where parents let their child lead and structure the playtime. To get into either of these roles, I teach several basic skills that parents can use in playtime. One of the most basic and fundamental of these skills is the Describing Skill, and this is what I want to focus on in this Blog.
The importance of play for adults
There is a growing body of evidence from neuroscientists, psychologists, and educators that play is essential not only for children, but for adults as well.
Children’s play and toys in the digital era
Over the past 20 years there has been increasing sophistication of digital and media–based “toys” replacing traditional toys. This Blog will summarize some of the important research and recommendations for parents of young children, in order to understand some of the ways they and their children can explore and play with digital technologies.