Toddler and play

Like almost everything else your child is doing and experiencing, play develops. Your toddler is now entering what I call the proper “toy” stage. This usually begins towards the end of the first year and goes onto reach its peak when your child is between five and six years old.

When children first play with toys they just examine them and explore them. As they get older they use their imagination to breathe life into the toys. They like toys that imitate the adult world. Dolls, toy houses and cars, for example, allow children to act out the scenes they see in real life. At this age, they endow toys with human qualities, they set up houses, homes and camps and imagine that their toys are capable of talking and feeling just like themselves.

Toys to help manipulation for toodlers

“Fitting” toys, where your toddler has to fit a shaped block into the correct hole, are ideal. A variation of this is sometimes called a “post box” and consists of a plastic box or cylinder with shaped holes cut into the surface. Your toddler can “post” the appropriately shaped blocks through the correct holes with the extra pleasure of them disappearing with a clunk. Stacking blocks provide hours of fun because they can be used in the bath, in the garden and on the beach, as well as on the floor. If you haven't already got them, building blocks are perennial favourites with children because they can be used as part of imaginary play to make so many shapes or objects - towers, forts, corrals, houses. Buy the ones sold with a trolley and you'll combine manipulation and walking.

Playing with water

Most children love playing with water and by the time they're in their second year will have forgotten about any fears they may have had. Try some of the following, but never leave your child alone near water:

• Paddling pools are ideal summer playthings. The smaller, round variety that you blow up are just as much fun as a more elaborate, permanent one.


• In the summer lay a tarpaulin sheet on the ground and play a hose or plant spray over it. When it's completely wet it'll make a perfect slide for your child.


• Make a small hole in the bottom of a plastic container and fill it with coloured water. Attach it to the back of your child's tricycle (and later, bicycle). She'll be able to see the coloured trail the water has left as she cycles along.


• If you have a tap in the back garden put a container of soil near it so that she can mix water with the soil and make up her own mud. Messy but lots of fun.


• Make an “iceberg” that can be played with in the bath or in a paddling pool. Put some food colouring into a balloon then fill it with water. Put it into a pan and place it in the freezer. When it's solid, prick the balloon and peel it off - you'll be left with a perfect, round “iceberg”.

Playing with sand

Sand-pits are marvellous play areas for children. Whether you buy a ready-made one or make your own by filling an old plastic paddling pool, an old rubber tyre or a cement-lined hole, you should always use washed river sand. Although more expensive than builders' sand it doesn't stain like the latter. Always cover the sand-pit over when not in use or every cat in your area could use it as a litter tray.

Slides, frames and swings

As your toddler becomes more co-ordinated throughout the year you may want to invest in a large piece of play equipment. If you decide to buy a swing, buy the kind that your toddler has to be bodily lifted into and out of. If you buy a slide make sure it has safety sides and no parts that will splinter.

Rough and gentle games to play with

Not all children like the same sort of game, nor does the same child like the same kind of game all the time. Some children have an obvious preference for more athletic, boisterous games, while others prefer quiet, contemplative activities.

Two of my sons were of the former type, and two of them the latter. From an early age I indulged the two who preferred rough and tumble games by providing large, soft cushions and foam-filled soft furniture for them to jump and leap about on and do their acrobatics. Outdoors there was a rope to climb, a tree with a favourite way up and down, a climbing frame with rope ladders and netting for them to cling on to and a tyre swing. I think they each had their first tricycles around the age of about 13 or 14 months. Ball games like football or bat and ball were always favourites with my children and had the advantage that they tired them out.

For the other two children, we had to provide lots of books and countless sets of paints, easels and drawing boards. At a very early age the children made toy ships or toy steam engines from household junk like empty egg boxes and kitchen paper tubes, yogurt cartons and plastic margarine containers, and as they got older they went on to making paper aeroplanes. One of our sons became quite an expert on origami at the age of three. Both of these children loved musical instruments and had recorders, toy flutes, toy xylophones and toy guitars before graduating on to proper instruments at a later age.

Are the toys creative enough?

There is hardly any toy or game that isn't creative for your child. Whatever she plays with or sees when she's awake will help her create imaginary worlds. She'll create patterns with colours and shapes and will create miniature models of her own home all the time that she's playing.

By far the most enjoyable and beneficial are games that don't need much supervision from you. They allow your child to follow any interesting development if the fancy takes her, and concentrate on doing something of her own choosing. She can use her own judgement so that her interest is completely fulfilled. If you constantly interrupt her and tell her to be clean and tidy, or careful, or if you try to help her too much, her interest in the game will wane. She will lose sight of the point of her game and will become disheartened. This sort of adult interference can also result in a child being unable to concentrate when she gets to school.

Is my child stimulated enough?

If you provide the right environment and the right equipment, you needn't worry about whether your child is being stimulated enough. At this stage she is developing her thinking about playing, and what she needs is freedom to allow her thought processes to expand so that she can follow new ideas as they occur to her, and see play through to its conclusions.

Your child is attacking play very much like an explorer. She must be given privacy and time to herself with no interruptions (unless she asks for them). It is your job to be an assistant and make sure that she has all the facilities that she needs. Once you have provided all these facilities, it is up to your child to decide what to do, not you. It's best to let her be to use her own imagination and not to interfere.

Toys and games for toddlers

Your toddler's co-ordination will improve greatly this year, as will her manipulative skills. Toys that make use of both of these will provide the most enjoyment, but be prepared for your child to be a bit ham-fisted at first and give her quite large, straightforward items. Household objects will continue to be popular, but other toys may stretch both co-ordination and mental processes further.

Suitable toys

• Posting box
• Stacking blocks
• Building blocks
• Hammering table
• Push/pull toys
• Dolls
• Cars
• Crayons and felt tips
• Paints and brushes
• Blackboard
• Books
• Modelling clay
• Sand-pit
• Paddling pool
• Slide
• Swing
• Frame
• Walking trolley

Creative materials

Glue

Mix 250g (8oz) flour with one teaspoon of salt in a pan. Add 600ml (20floz) water slowly until it's absorbed into a paste. Simmer for five minutes then cool and refrigerate in an airtight container until required.

Modelling dough

Mix three parts of flour to one part of salt, then stir in one part of water. Colour with food colouring and store in an airtight container.

Mock-clay dough

Mix together equal parts of salt and flour. Add a little oil and then add enough water to mix to a stiff dough. Knead until soft and stretchy.

Dr Miriam Stoppard

New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard

Posted 03.11.2010

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