Social milestones
SOCIAL MILESTONES
THE STAGES OF PLAY
Your child's social development cannot be broken down into neat,
tidy stages like his/her physical milestones, rather it is a
progressive milestone, one which takes time to evolve rather than
simply being "achieved" at a given age or time. One of the most
important aspects of his or her social development is the way in
which he or she plays. Developmental psychologists identify two
stages of play: parallel and interactive, which occur as your child
grows through the toddler and preschool years.
PARALLEL PLAY
Young children engage in parallel play: that is, when you put a
group of children together, they will play alongside each other,
perhaps even working on the same activities. However, they are not
actually playing TOGETHER, rather they are simply playing parallel
to each other, with the activities of those around them having
little to no impact on their own individual play.
INTERACTIVE PLAY
From around the age of two years, your child might begin to show an
awareness of what those around him or her are doing, and might want
to become involved in a particular game or activity with another
child/children. This is very much a process, and how early/late
your child begins this process depends on a number of factors
including *his/her own personality type: if your child tends
towards being shy or quiet, he will likely take longer to enter the
interactive play stage as he/she will be quite content with his/her
own activity. Conversely, children who are more outgoing by nature
may show an earlier interest in interactive play.
*exposure to other children: children who are in daycare settings
surrounded by other children from an early age tend to enter the
interactive play stage sooner than those who spend less time around
other children. Similarly, twins and higher order multiples engage
in interactive play much earlier than singletons, some as early as
12-15 months. Experts are divided as to whether this nature or
nurture - is it a part of the mythical "twin bond", or is it simply
because there is always someone else around to play with so they
develop a heightened sense of social awareness?
TYPES OF PLAY
As well as the stages of play, there are several different types of
play which experts agree are important for child development. These
types of play engage your child's senses in different ways and
encourage him/her to explore and question the world around
them.
MESSY PLAY
Even the youngest toddlers enjoy messy play, and every child should
have the opportunity to get a bit grubby every now and then! Some
examples of messy play include finger painting and experimenting
with different combinations of soap powder, food coloring and
water. Messy play experiences provide a tactile experience whereby
all of the enjoyment is in your child's sense of touch.
WATER PLAY
Kids love water, and it's another important play activity. Water
play encourages the scientific areas of your child's brain: think
depth perception, pouring games, experimenting with adding coloring
to the water… Always make sure you supervise your child/ren around
water though, as children can drown in a very short time in a very
small amount of water.
CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY
There are so many different possibilities with constructive play:
blocks, building in the sandpit, collage and cardboard
construction. Constructive play encourages your child to experiment
by building higher towers, digging deeper holes etc., all of which
is giving him or her the opportunity to challenge his or her
perception of what they can achieve.
FANTASY/IMAGINATIVE PLAY
This is by far one of the most important types of play, and
persists long after the preschool years into your child's school
days. In it's most primitive form, it can be as simple as your
toddler trying to dress him/herself in someone else's clothes, or
playing with dress up clothes; as your child gets older it extends
to teddy bear tea parties, pretending to be a monster or dragon,
role playing with baby dolls… the possibilities are quite literally
limitless!
For some ideas on great ways to encourage your child's play,
check out the OHbaby! Lifestyle section, you'll find
50+ Free Toddler Boredom
Busters plus tips for indoor and outdoor play, recipes for play dough and finger paint, and tips
for cooking with kids, to try with your child…
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