From Baby to Preschool Play

The Wonderful World of Child's Play as They Grow

By Renee Roberson

Famous educator Maria Montessori said it best when she remarked, "Play is children's work. It's what they do to make sense of the world."

In today's high-tech and fast-paced society, it can be easy to over-schedule children and feel like they need structured activities beginning with infancy to promote stability. However, childhood development experts disagree with that philosophy and encourage parents to remember that children need time and space to play freely – in fact, their physical development depends on it.

Here are the different – and necessary – types of play you can expect your child to experiment with from infancy through the preschool years.

Adults play a key role in developing successful play in children from birth through the first two years of a child's life. Infants need interaction from adults, says Barrie Moen, mother of three daughters and owner and operator of Playwise Preschool Academy in Huntersville, N.C. She says that by watching reactions from adult caregivers, they learn how to get desired reactions from both people and objects.

Babies engage in interactive play with adults and not so much with other children, says Dee Acklie, associate professor of education at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Neb. "This is a very sensory stage," she says. "They love to put everything in their mouth, and that's how they learn things."

Toys such as mobiles, rattles, stacking and nesting toys, cloth and board books and toys with wheels all help babies learn about the world they live in, but they look to adult caregivers to show them how these objects work, and they probably won't show much interest in interacting with other babies through play until the toddler years, Acklie says.

As your child becomes a toddler, you can expect to have a very active child on your hands as he celebrates his new mobility and enjoys exploring the world around him. Moen says that toddlers also start experimenting with "pre-operational" types of play.

"Pre-operational" play is when a child takes an everyday object, such as a shoe, and pretends it is a car by sliding it across the floor. At this point, toddlers also begin to participate in "quiet play," which is a type of play that continues on through the preschool years.

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