By Kerri Kreh Reda, M.P.H.
Young children learn when they are engaged and having fun. Children need many opportunities to use their imagination and to explore their environment. Remember that you are your child’s most treasured toy and playmate. Here are some suggestions for items that will make the most of your child’s play.
0-9 months:
Play with your baby by singing, dancing, reading and making facial expressions. Choose toys that engage your child’s senses. Infants learn about the world through exploration, using hearing, sight, touch and movement. Mobiles, rattles, teethers, board and cloth books, and pop-up toys are good choices.
9-18 months:
Choose toys that imitate real life. Children love to imitate the adults they love. Provide plastic tools, play food, play kitchens, and animal farms to help develop the imagination. Offer shape sorters, nesting cups for problem solving skills, and push and pull toys and balls for active play. Provide peek-a-boo toys to help children master object permanence and lessen their separation anxiety. Other good choices include pots and pans, colanders, plastic spatulas and plastic bowls, empty boxes or containers to fill and dump.
18-36 months:
Choose materials that help them create with their hands such as play dough, large crayons and finger paints. These help strengthen muscles used for later hand writing. For imaginative play, offer dress up clothes, action and animal figures, dolls and stuffed animals. Puzzles help young children solve problems and help develop fine motor skills. Other good choices include blocks, trucks, pillows and blankets, and musical instruments.
Keep the play environment safe by baby proofing and choosing items that are too large to fit through the tube of an empty toilet paper roll to prevent choking. Books are great choices for
children of any age.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of two have no time with screens. These include high tech toys, television, tablets, computers and DVDs.
Here are more resources on child’s play:
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs1430.pdf
Kerri Kreh Reda, M.P.H., is a Human Development Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Family Health and Wellness Program. She can be reached at 631-727-7850 ext. 330 or at kkr5@cornell.edu.