Child development games rules

Also known as non-social play, duri ng solitary play, children play with toys on their own and do not notice or concern themselves with other children or what they are doing. When children engage in parallel play, they may be playing with similar toys such as building blocks, but they are playing next to each other rather than together.

They are not interacting but are happy to be playing near another child. Children also engage in onlooker play, where they watch the other child play but do not join in or play themselves. During associative play, a pair or small group of children play together, but with little cooperation and negotiation. They share toys but are each playing their own game and not working towards a shared goal.

Cooperative play may include a game with rules or a shared goal, such as building a tower together. Children plan, negotiate and assign roles as they play. Jean Piaget identified three stages of play — practice play , symbolic play and games with rules. Some theorists also refer to unoccupied play, which tends to be comprised of random movements without a clear purpose, although it is still a part of play.

Symbolic play is when children use an object, action or idea to represent something. They could use a block, for example, to pretend they are on a telephone call. This kind of play is more structured and requires following rules and norms to reach a goal when playing alone or with a group.

Smilansky described constructive play as the stage in which children manipulate objects in order to create something. The following types of play were noted by various theorists, depending on the angle from which they studied play. These categories are based on the characteristics of the play or on how they develop the child. They are all important and you will notice your child engaging in various types of play throughout the day, often shifting from one to another.

Read on to the section on Play During the First 9 Years to see what kinds of play your child should be engaging in. This is the rhythmic repeating of sounds or words. Young children do it purely for enjoyment and often use exaggerated body movements. This kind of play involves making up nonsense words and rhyming words. It starts before a child learns to converse. An example would be using skipping ropes as hose pipes, dressing up and pretending to be firemen.

S ensory play involves stimulating the senses and experiencing sounds, rhythms, tastes, textures, smells, colours, shapes and movements. A baby, for example, will want to touch everything or place objects in their mouth. At this stage, the child wants to see what happens when materials are manipulated. An example would be moving on from tasting blocks to stacking them as they move through the stages of block play and seeing what happens.

This refers to games with rules and rituals. Constructive play involves creating things and manipulating objects to make something. Examples would be stacking blocks , building a fort or making a machine with cardboard boxes.

A variety of opportunities for children to engage in social play are the best mechanisms for progressing through the different social stages. By interacting with others in play settings, children learn social rules such as, give and take, reciprocity, cooperation, and sharing.

Through a range of interactions with children at different social stages, children also learn to use moral reasoning to develop a mature sense of values. To be prepared to function effectively in the adult world, children need to participate in lots of social situations. Constructive play is when children manipulate their environment to create things. This type of play occurs when children build towers and cities with blocks, play in the sand, construct contraptions on the woodworking bench, and draw murals with chalk on the sidewalk.

It also gives children a sense of accomplishment and empowers them with control of their environment. Children who are comfortable manipulating objects and materials also become good at manipulating words, ideas and concepts.

Children learn to abstract, to try out new roles and possible situations, and to experiment with language and emotions with fantasy play. In addition, children develop flexible thinking; learn to create beyond the here and now; stretch their imaginations, use new words and word combinations in a risk-free environment, and use numbers and words to express ideas, concepts, dreams, and histories.

Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy sorting their toys into categories by color or size as they play, so encourage your child by saying things such as, "Let's see if we can find all the blue cars and put them together. You can teach your child lessons in practical situations. For example, you can let him help out with the laundry by asking him to help you sort the clothes into piles by color or by which family member they belong to. Once your child has sorted objects into categories, encourage him to count the objects and compare which group has more items.

When he is an older preschooler, he will be able to sort objects by function, such as "things that fly" or "things we eat. A deck of cards can be used for several different learning games with children of all ages. Toddlers can use them to match the suits or they can sort them by color. Preschoolers who are learning to count and recognize numbers can use them to sequence the numbers found on the cards. Older preschoolers have more number sense and can compare which number is greater. To play a simple comparing game, divide a deck of cards in half and give one-half to each player.

Have both players turn over the top card from their pile and lay it on the table. Looking at the two numbers, have the players decide which one is 'more.