Toddlers Playing
Imaginitive Play for Toddlers

Toddlers Playing

Do you enjoy playing with your toddlers. Playing imaginary games with toddlers is vital for their development. imaginary play helps your toddler to try out activities in a safe environment. You may find an older toddler playing family with their dolls. We hope that this play is mostly positive and that your toddlers do not role play rows and other negative behaviours that they have witnessed.

Imaginary play gives toddlers a safe environment in which to learn and practise social skills, they can work through feelings and practise role playing daily activities.

Pretend play starts emerging when your toddler is around 15 months. You will notice them pretending to feed a doll with a spoon or even pretending to feed themselves. They may offer you an empty cup to drink out of and may make sounds to go with this.

Up until the age of three or four you will find that your toddler will generally play alone even in the presence of another toddler. You will also notice that your son will be quite happy playing with dolls and your daughter happy playing with cars. This is quite normal.

While you and your toddlers playing chat to them about the feel, the way an item looks, what it sounds like, does it smell of anything?

Talk to them about how you feel as you play. Are you happy, sad or tired? Give them describing words and feeling words as you are playing. This will help them to develop a good vocabulary and help them to get in touch with their feelings. So what kind of games might you see your toddlers playing? How can you encourage imaginitive play?

Toddlers Playing

Set up pretend stores. Toddlers love to pretend to go into a store and buy stuff.
This is easily staged.
You can make a store in the corner of a room. Put out a table and use a toy till.
You can use real items or you can buy pretend store items.
Take turns to be the store owner and customer.
You can even use real money (make sure your toddler does not put it in their mouth).

Pretend car or bus.....get a large cardboard box, your toddler can sit in it and you can push them around in it.
Set up your dining room chaire in rows as a bus. Put one seat in front. Your toddler can have you or dolls as passengers.
He or she can pretend to drive the bus.
You can sing "The wheels on the bus go round and round at the same time".
If your toddler is older then make up pretend tickets and use money to make this play seem more real.

Toddlers will love playing with a cupboard containing plastic bowls, cups and platic utensils.
Colored playdoh and cutters and rolling pins will add to kitchen play.
Your toddler will enjoy making pretend food.

Toddlers Playing

Play music and act out how it sounds, Noisy heavy music, be an elephant, light airy music be a fairy dancing etc.

Go and lay down in the garden together on a cloudy day and guess the shapes of the clouds together.

Make a tent by throwing a sheet over the tops of chairs or over a table. Your toddler can set up home underneath it.
Encourage them to take dolls or teddy bears with them.
You could even give them a real lunch in there.

Have a teddy bears picnic, lay it out in your living room if it is too cold or wet outside.

An older toddler may like to play dress up, provide clothes from charity shops.
You can get inexpensive chunky beads and other accessories for your toddler to play with.
Hats are great fo role model games.
They will also enjoy your shoes.

Sand and water play encourages your toddler to learn whilst they are playing. They will enjoy tipping water into different containers as they have seen you do.
Your toddler will enjoy mixing the sand and water together and getting messy (some toddlers will hate this, son't push them).
Whilst they are playing talk to them and have a conversation about the way the sand and water feel, what the water pouring into a contaner sounds like.

Grab your toddlers and share some quality time together.

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