As we know, children learn through play. This applies to children of all ages, even babies. The younger the child is, the more difficult it can be to see that what they are doing is play. This can, in turn, make it more difficult to facilitate that play and the optimise learning outcomes for your little one. This post is going to elaborate on the types of play that most two year olds will be seeking out and how you can provide or add to it for them.
A typical two year old is emotional, adventurous and thoughtful. Unsurprisingly, these attitudes align to the areas of development that toddlers are undergoing: social/emotional, motor and cognitive. The way that they interact with the world is to engage and meet these needs. This applies to the way they play with toys, but you’ll likely have noticed that toddlers can turn almost anything into a ‘toy’ to play with. In fact, whilst there are many traditional forms of play that you can engage in with your child, some of the most effective ones are including your child in day to day chores and routines.
Household jobs
Before we get into it: yes, it will take much longer to get these household jobs done. The outcomes, however, make it totally worth it. Toddlers want independence and agency, so including them in all the ‘adult’ jobs around the house will keep them engaged, motivated and a contributing member of the family. By including them you are also showing them what to do and giving them opportunities to practice physical skills, like sweeping the floor. You are talking to them and explaining what you are both doing, providing them with lots of meaningful language to build their vocabulary, like when you wash and dry dishes.
Not only this, but they will be practicing sequencing and planning, two foundational STEM skills. There is a logic built into household management, and by having your child help they are being exposed to that logic. A toddler helping in the house will learn that dirty laundry has to be collected from the hamper first, then placed into the washing machine with soap, then dried and finally folded and put away, in that order, everytime. They are not going to care about, and ultimately learn this, if they are watching you do these jobs. No, they need to be doing too.
Physical play
Speaking of doing, this is an important aspect to all toddler play. Quality screen time is an emerging area of research, and there are some great apps and devices out there, but two year olds need lots of physical and interactive play. Physical play develops gross motor skills and strength, but as with all play for young children it is very holistic. Children engaging in physical play are learning about their bodies (like when they run they get puffed out), they are learning about resilience and persistence (toddlers often fall and have to get back up) and they are learning social and emotional skills (taking turns with others, not doing as well as a peer). All those skills can be facilitated by an adult participating in the play, and pointing out those skills that are being learned. Young children need you to tell them what emotion they are feeling, this is how they learn to identify and manage emotions on their own. A simple sentence like ‘you look really disappointed that Sally is finding this easier than you, don’t worry you’ll get better with practice’. They might not understand every word you’ve said, but they are taking it in.
The other thing you can do that toddlers can’t, is set up physical play experiences and games. These could be challenges, like a sorting challenge or a time challenge. They could be rules based, although for a toddler they would have to be very simple rules, like a game of musical statues or imitating different animals. The expectation is not that the child can comply with the rules by themselves, but that the two of you are a team remembering and following the rules of the game. One of the main points of adults joining in on children’s play is that with adult support children can achieve things that they could not by themselves.
They could also be sensory physical play, which doesn’t always equate to messy play, but the good ones usually are.
Messy play
Messy play meets your child’s sensory needs and experimental needs really well. Messy play is play that involves, well, the potential for mess! It’s been established that learning for young children is holistic and intertwined and messy play is a place where this all intersects nicely, and there’s lots of room for adaptations. Simply put, give your child a tray of dirt and water where they can make mud or make a slime recipe together and give them free reign with the end product.
The making of the mess is part of the learning. Children can see the components that go into making the mess, and the more often they do it, the more consolidated it becomes in their brain. Concepts we take for granted, like adding water to things makes them wet, is something toddlers are only just learning. Messy play is a detailed experiment for a young brain.
The end product is where so much learning occurs though, despite appearances. Toddlers are volatile and active, and they are only just developing an attention span. Messy play keeps them engaged for longer periods of time, allowing them to develop their concentration while they are also working on skills of hand strength and fine motor coordination.Messy play is interactive, and children will experiment with how their interactions can manipulate and move the sensory object. This is hands-on science - they are learning the physics of different materials, they are learning about force and pressure and a whole manner of other concepts.
They are also learning about themselves, and this is where you can add vocabulary and concepts. ‘You look so happy right now, you must really like the way this slime feels on your hands’ is a two fold comment, you are labelling the emotion they are feeling and you are labelling the sense they are using. You can do the same thing with sensory play that your child doesn’t appear to like, too.
So your main job is to provide the ‘ingredients’ and ‘recipes’ for this messy play - and, as we learned above, including them in the packing up of the mess is a learning activity for them too! But you can’t be making messes all day, every day. Toddlers often have a playroom, or a play area filled with toys, so how can you increase the learning happening in those spaces?
Hanging out with toys
There are so many toys out there, and so many ways of playing with them that there is no way we could sufficiently go into detail for them all. However, there are key ‘teaching’ techniques that are used across all forms of play, and particularly effectively during calmer, sit-down play. They are:
Narrate what they are doing. Label the things they are touching. Don’t use ‘baby talk’, speak to them clearly and succinctly, e.g. ‘you are picking the car now’
Show them ways of playing. If they are building a tower, build your own tower next to theirs. Show them the strong base, and the importance of lining the blocks up well.
Describe the characteristics of the items they are playing with. Point out the colour of the thing they are holding, or the size. Point out the texture, temperature or shape.
Point out their likes and dislikes. If you notice that they are really drawn to a particular toy or colour, say it! Toddlers are developing their identity and you saying ‘you really like the green monster, don’t you?’ helps them solidify their self-concept, an important aspect to developing empathy.
Count any groups of items that might be there. Meaningful exposure to numbers is the most effective way for children to understand counting beyond just being able to recite the number words in order.
Read any text that is visible during play. Reading books is something that should be happening every day, but reading words that are on the toys involved in the play is highlighting the use and function of written words. Show your child the police car has ‘police’ written on it, or read the name tag on the doll.
Model appropriate reactions and behaviors, and name them. If you mess up a drawing, or knock over a building explicitly say something like ‘oh dear, I’m a bit upset that I’ve ruined my picture, but it’s ok I will start a new one’. This is going to miraculously prevent your toddler from having tantrums and meltdowns, but seeing appropriate ways of dealing with frustration and disappointment will help them develop their social and emotional skills.
With all this in mind, it is worth remembering that you are the expert on your child. This article will hopefully provide you with some inspiration for how you can meet the needs of your child in their play. You might find that right now some of the suggestions are not yet right for your child or that your child has moved beyond some of these play styles and needs. That’s ok, and the most important way you can help your child (of any age) play to meet learning outcomes, is by playing with them.