Page 14 - teachYourChildToRead

14 Teach your child to read

Play enhances development

Play is an effective way to promote skills in all developmental areas. Play:

• connects people, develops social skills such as turn taking and car-
ing for each other, promotes bonding and helps build relationships
• helps children feel safe, loved and valued, it builds empathy, com-
passion and develops trust
• promotes brain development, stimulates imagination, promotes
problem solving and arouses curiosity, play leads to discovery and
creativity
• allows a child to learn sound judgment in assessing risk, building
confidence, resilience and self-belief
• builds empathy, helping children to understand that other people
have feelings and to care about the environment in which we live
• builds gross motor skills, co-ordination of the large muscles in
their arms, legs and body
• builds fine motor skills, the smaller muscles in feet, hands and
fingers
• promotes eye-hand co-ordination and dexterity
• develops perseverance
• is an remedy for loneliness, anxiety and stress and last but not
least, play is fun.

Types of play

There are various types of play children participate in. Although older
children participate in all types of play at different times, infants will
generally progress through the following types of play as they mature.

Lone play

The child is completely focused on their own play activity, either unaware
or uninterested in what others may be doing around them (most common
in babies 6 months to 18 months).

Observer
In this type of play, children watch other children but don’t engage in
what the others are doing or interact in any way (most common in young
children 9 months to 18 months).