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• Play with young children doesn’t have to include toys. ‘People games’ such as playing peek-a-boo, tickling, chase and singing nursery rhymes are just as fun! These can help young children to request that they want ‘more’ and develop the beginnings of social interaction.
• Young children learn about the world through play. They may do this by exploring objects by putting them in their mouth, banging and shaking them or throwing them.
• As your child plays, use single words or short phrases to talk about what they are doing and what is happening now. For example if playing with trains you could say “train”, “choo-choo”, “driving the train”, “the train is going under the bridge”. Children learn the words for the things the like first so talking during play will help develop their language.
• Children learn routines and develop their imagination through pretend play (e.g. brushing dolly’s hair, putting dinosaur to bed). This can help to develop their story telling skills by telling you what’s happening. You could extend your child’s play by adding extra steps, for example washing the dinosaur and then putting him to bed or blowing on a cup of tea before drinking.