Play is deemed as an occupation because it is an essential part of the human experience and contributes to a child’s health and quality of life. Play engagement between parents, the child and their siblings helps to create a relationship of trust and allow the child to learn and make sense of the world. Increasing play engagement means having reciprocal back-and-forth interaction or conversation that happens during play, which also leads to longer play duration. SPD occupational therapist, Nur Irtiyah, highlights some ways of increasing play engagement.
Make time for play
Playing with children may take a lot of energy and focus, especially after parents come back home from a long day at work. Start by playing with your child for 5 to 10 minutes in your everyday routine. After your play skill levels have improved, increase the amount of time spent. Being consistent with such play times helps to build a positive connection with your children and improve their play skills and engagement. It is also a great way to let your child know that you are available for them.
Engage in different types of play
Play does not need to be restricted only to store-bought toys and activities. The types of play, such as sensory play, allow children to explore and find out their interests. The different types of play that the child, his parents and siblings can participate in include sensory, physical and pretend play as well as arts and crafts.
These types of play can be extended to different home routines such as:
Showering routine
The child and their siblings can engage in water play together using play objects such as toy figurines, watering cans and water mills. Soap and watercolour paint can also be used to make bubbles and coloured water so that the child and their siblings can extend their play duration as most are attracted to bubbles and coloured water.
Arts and crafts routine
Parents can take turns with the child and their siblings to create a painting together using various mediums such as:
- Crayon, colour pencils, glitter and paint.
- Blow-painting with straws to create various paint effects.
- Fruits and vegetable stamping.
Parents can also get their child to create a ‘Thank you’ card for their teachers during special events such as Teachers’ Day. It can be as simple as putting paint on the child’s hands and stamping on the card or using a craft punch to create small cut-outs and pasting them on the cards.
Indoor play routine
Here’s how you could use pretend play toys:
- Put on a chef’s hat and use food and cutlery toys to act out a restaurant setting. Ask their siblings to use food toys to pretend cooking and then serve the ‘food’ to the child. The child and their siblings can take turns to ‘cook’ and ‘enjoy’ the food.
- Use baskets, toy cash registers and food items to play pretend shopping at a supermarket. The child and their siblings can take turns to be the cashier and customers to experience the process of purchasing, scanning the purchases and bagging them.
Outdoor play routine
Parents can bring the children to a playground or beach to enjoy sensory play outdoors. Here are some play activities:
- Play with sand by digging a hole or building sandcastles using shovels and baskets.
- Siblings can show the child how to build a sandcastle first, and the child can imitate the actions. Parents can assist in building the sandcastles if the sand is not sturdy enough. Use items that can be found in nature such as sticks, stones and leaves to decorate the sandcastles.
- Play catching or ball games.
Throw or kick the ball to your child and ask the child to throw or kick back to you. Involve the siblings by asking them to throw or kick the ball to the child. Do these actions multiple times to engage the child longer in the play.
Caregivers’ response to the child’s play
When the parents and the siblings are involved in the child’s play, they need to be able to respond appropriately. They should listen and observe how the child plays, question the play actions that the child is showing and expand on the play.
A strategy to being intentional and responsive is to listen, question and affirm the problem-solving skills that the child may exhibit. This can be expanded and applied to the following:
Allow the child to lead the play and imitate their play actions
Letting your child lead the play will allow you to understand the toys and activities that they are interested in. It is easier to engage the child for a longer duration when they express their likes towards certain toys and activities. From there, their parents and siblings can imitate the child’s behaviour during the play routine by following what the child does. For instance, when a child pushes a toy car back and forth, you will imitate their actions. This helps the child to understand that you are interested in their play actions and will want to play together.
Being responsive and sensitive
To establish good quality play, parents need to be responsive and sensitive towards the child’s play. This can be achieved through ‘serve-and-return’ interactions. This involves the child ‘serving’ cues and signals (e.g., smiling, cooing, offering of toy) to their parents and siblings. They ‘return the serve’ by being aware of the child’s cues and signals during play, and to respond accordingly at the appropriate time. For instance, when the child is playing with food toys, observe how they are playing with it. They may just be putting the toys into the bowl and pouring them out repeatedly. The child may then look to see your reactions. This is then a cue for you to show a way to play with the food toys. You could put them in a pan and make ‘sizzling’ sounds to indicate that the food is being cooked. This may elicit a reaction from your child after seeing you playing with the food toys. Pass the food toys and pan to your child and observe if they imitate your actions.
Being aware of your child’s cues and knowing how to respond appropriately will help to increase the time spent on play.
Being available and playful
Facial and verbal expressions (e.g., smiling, praising, asking questions) during play allow parents and the siblings to exhibit interest and share their delight in interacting with the child. The latter will also able to control their emotions when parents are affectionate and show positive emotions towards them. For example, when the child is playing with playdough, parents or their siblings can use a star cut-out to cut a piece of the playdough. Show that to the child and say ‘Oh, look, a star’ to elicit a reaction from the child. Subsequently, let the child try cutting out a star. Re-affirm with smiles and praises when the child make a cut-out.
Engage in social games and pretend play
Social games (e.g., peek-a-boo) that require sharing and turn-taking opportunities, and pretend play (e.g., roleplay buying food at a supermarket) can help children to acquire and practice social skills.
Involving the siblings in social games and pretend play will allow the child to learn how to play appropriately and pick up acceptable social behaviours as demonstrated by their siblings. Parents can also join in if the child and their siblings are unsure of an activity or scenario.
Give praises when your child displays appropriate play skills When you observe your child playing appropriately with the toys, materials or playing well together with their siblings, give praises such as “Good job in playing with the blocks together!”. You can also give high-fives or hugs instead of just verbally telling them. When your child are praised for demonstrating certain play actions, they will repeat these play actions more often.
Conclusion
In conclusion, play can occur throughout the day in different routines and does not always require extensive time or expensive toys.
Consistency in having play every day will help the child to practice the skills that they acquire in play and instill good play values. They can generalise these skills and values to other settings such as in their pre-schools. Increasing play engagement with children is important as it can affect the development of the child’s cognitive and social skills as well as language and emotional development where they will be able to control their emotions, have better social and communication skills and increased empathic capacity when they are adolescents.
References
https://raisingchildren.net.au/guides/activity-guides/children-with-diverse-abilities
https://kidsclinic.sg/pd-guides/health-topics/play-child-plays-0-5-years/
https://www.parents.com/fun/toys/kid-toys/toys-for-all-ages/
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-12/RespondingToChildrensPlay.PDF
