Power of Play

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Caregiving Approaches Infants & Toddlers Play & Learning Activities Preschool Age Children School Age Children

Create a lasting impact through play

Play is not only critical to healthy brain development, but it’s also how children learn to engage with and respond to others. It allows them to use their creativity, develop their imagination, and strengthen their critical thinking. In the resources below, you’ll learn about the lasting impact of play-based learning and how you can best support your child’s growth through play.

Why play is important
Understanding play – ten things every parent should know about their child’s play
Social stages of play – how your child’s play changes as they grow
Ideas for outdoor play
Risk-taking and play
Supporting play for your school-ager
Sibling play

Children learn through their play.

Children develop thinking, social, physical, and language/literacy skills through playing and interacting with the world.

Cognitive Skills

Children develop thinking skills, like math and problem solving, in a pretend grocery store.

Physical Skills

Through play, children develop large and small motor skills and confidence in their bodies when they are balancing blocks, feeding themselves, and running on the playground.

New Vocabulary

Through conversations with our children, they are developing language skills, like the words they need to play, get their needs met, and negotiate with peers.

Social Skills

Playing games together and working together to solve a problem helps children develop social skills.

Literacy Skills

Scribbling on paper or creating a menu for a pretend restaurant, playing with playdough, and cutting with scissors all develop the fine motor skills needed for writing.

Benefits of Play

Why is play important for children?

Kids don’t need fancy toys or certificates to play. They need time, space, and freedom to explore the ideas that interest them. No matter what it looks like, when children play, they learn.

Play builds imagination and creativity

During play, kids stretch their imaginations. They create make-believe games or get lost in pretend worlds. These are helpful skills for navigating life and developing relationships with others.

Children need time for unstructured play

Unstructured play is the time when kids direct their own play. They are not bound by schedules or activities directed by adults. Unstructured play helps a child’s brain develop in positive ways.

Social-emotional skills are essential for life success

Through play, children learn how to navigate the world in a way they can understand and process. They explore how to work in groups, to wait and take turns, to negotiate, and to speak up for themselves.

Play improves language and literacy

Starting from birth, children build language and literacy skills through play and interactions, like back-and-forth conversations, sharing books together, and pretending.

Play encourages greater independence

Solitary play allows children to experiment with their own creativity and ideas. When alone, and even bored, children's brains take up the challenge. They find new and exciting ways to entertain themselves.

Play promotes physical skills

Children have a very strong need for physical play, which is any type of play that gets them moving. It's part of how they learn to use their bodies and strengthens connections in the brain.

Diving Deeper

Understanding Play

Here are the ten things every parent should know about their child’s play.

Children learn through their play.
Play helps children grow strong and healthy.
Play reduces stress and helps your children grow emotionally.
Play is more than meets the eye – it is both simple and complex and comes in many forms.
As parents, you are the biggest supporters of your children’s learning, so make time every day to play with your child.
Play and learning go hand-in-hand.
Go outside every day. Outdoor play is essential for early development.
Play is instinctual for children and comes naturally, if you give them the time to explore.
Follow your child’s lead, giving them the time and space to choose what and how they play.
Play is how young children learn skills like math, literacy, language, etc.

toddler putting a paper crown on his mother's head while his father looks on

Upcoming Workshops

UNLearning Workshop Series with Conner Prairie

Join us as we host Brandy Whitaker, director of education at Conner Prairie, as she guides us through the process of UNLearning.

Reconnecting to our Inner Child
January 26, 1:00 – 1:30 p.m. Zoom. Register
Find out what is UNLearning, how we begin the process, and why it is important as we navigate play and learning with young children.

Diving Deeper with Conner Prairie
February 23, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Zoom. Register
Unpack different approaches to early childhood learning such as play-based, nature-based, and place-based.

Exploring STEAM at Home
March 23, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Zoom. Register
Learn how you can bring STEAM learning to life at home utilizing Conner Prairie’s digital content.

Developing Play Skills

Social stages of play

Play is much more than just having fun. Play is the foundation of all learning and how children explore the world. While playing, your child learns and develops important skills they will continue to use throughout their lifetime.

Ages Zero to Two Years

The first true stage of play begins after the newborn period and lasts through age two. This is the stage when a child plays alone and appears to be uninterested in what others are doing. This is an important stage of play because it teaches children how to entertain themselves.

Age Two Years

During this stage, a child begins to watch other children playing but does not play with them. They will often use language to find out more about play and seem curious about others. While this type of play is common in two-year-olds, it can take place at any age.

Older than Two Years

When a child plays alongside or near others but does not play with them, we call this parallel play. They may have similar toys and copy each other, but they do not play cooperatively together. At this stage, social skills are being learned through observation.

Two to Three Years

Between the ages of two and three, play changes and children become more interested in playing with others than with toys. They may talk and engage more with one another, practice turn-taking and trading toys, and begin developing negotiating skills. However, as children are figuring out what it means to play with someone else, there are no rules to their play and conflict may arise. Stay close and help them develop problem-solving and cooperation skills by giving them the words to use and help calming down.

Four to Six Years

Social play means children are interested in both the people and the activity, and play becomes more organized. They want to know what is happening around them and what their friends think. Pretend play becomes more complex as groups have a more formalized leader and children are assigned roles as they work together to accomplish goals developed by the group. Think about children playing house – the “leader” assigns roles to each child (the dog, the mom, the baby, etc.), and they work together to cook and serve food or take care of the baby.

This kind of play brings together skills from all other stages and is the foundation of friendships and social skills.
Cooperative play is necessary for social and group interaction in preschool and early elementary school.
After age six, most play is divided in male/female groups.

Getting Creative: Unique Ideas for your Preschool Artist

Tots & Touch Screens! Making Sense of Technology for Young Children

Sibling Play: Activities for the Whole Family

Outdoor Play

Local outdoor experiences for your family

Looking to get out and try new local experiences? Check out our Central Indy parks and splash pad bingo cards!

PDF Resource

Creek Stomping

Bingo Card

PDF Resource

Splash Pads

Bingo Card

PDF Resource

Playgrounds

Bingo Card

Featured Resource

Exploring the Outdoors

Nature play provides young children with tremendous opportunities for authentic learning as they take risks. Moreover, it benefits their intellectual, emotional, and physical growth. Learn more about how you can support nature play for ages birth to five.

Children’s bodies are wired to be active.

Time outside daily is important for children’s physical and mental health. It’s part of how they learn to use their bodies and strengthens connections in the brain. Additionally, children who spend time outdoors have a greater ability to self-regulate their behaviors and impulses. No matter the weather, put kids in layers and outdoor clothes so they can get in their green time.

Outdoor play helps children:

Sharpen reflexes
Work on movement control
Improve gross motor skills
Develop greater balance
Build strong muscles

2022 Farmers Market Resource

Farmers markets are a great way to explore your local community, experience the local culture, and expose your child to different foods.

Download

Risk Taking and Play

Risky play is play that has perceived elements of risk and helps young children test their limits. It can look like running down a hill, balancing on a ledge, or climbing up a slide. Your child may fall or skin a knee, but they will also learn what their bodies can do!

What is risky play?

For many parents, what they fear the most about risky play is injury. However, allowing little ones to take developmentally-appropriate risks can actually make them safer, because they learn how to safely navigate their environments and what their bodies can and cannot do. Risky play does not mean handing a child a saw and letting them to go town. It means allowing children the opportunity to explore developmentally-appropriate risks and develop their own risk management skills.

There are six categories of risky play:

Great Heights – Climbing and learning to balance
High Speed – Riding a bike, running, sliding down a slide
Dangerous Elements – Playing near a body of water
Rough and Tumble – Wrestling or play-fighting
Lost/Disappear – Hide-and-go-seek
Dangerous Tools – Using a hammer or scissors

The benefits of appropriate risk taking

By giving your child an opportunity to explore developmentally-appropriate risks, you’re allowing them to develop their own risk management skills.

Other benefits include:

Critical thinking skills – Children learn how to find creative solutions to problems and how to assess danger for the future.
Self-awareness – Children learn about what they are good at and feel powerful when they reach new heights and speeds.
Resilience – Children learn that it is okay and safe to fall down or fail. Through risk-taking, they develop strength to learn to try again and again.

Incorporating risk taking into play

Think about where and how you played when you were a child. Most of us spent our childhoods playing outside and roaming freely. Risky play was much more accepted a few generations ago! Keep this in mind when you’re attempting to loosen your boundaries and engage in appropriate risky play. Here are some other tips:

Explain safety rules without making it sound scary. Find other ways to say “be careful” that don’t limit exploration.
Go outside every day. There is no bad weather, only improper clothing!
Encourage small risks without putting pressure on your child, like taking a big step or navigating a climbing structure.
Offer choices, such as taking a riskier path or using a different tool they may have never used before.
Instead of phrases like, “that’s not safe” or “that’s too high”, try “do you feel safe?” or “how high do you want to go?”

Featured Resource

Technology Tips

Young children need support as they learn how to use technology. Here are some tips to help you navigate parenting young children as they 'create, connect, and learn' with technology.

Play for School-Agers

It’s all about experiences.

In order to learn how to navigate social situations, school-agers must have experiences. This can be difficult to watch, but sometimes the best thing we can do as adults is step aside and support friendship skills as opposed to fixing or solving conflicts.

Tips for supporting your school-ager through social situations:

Encourage team activities
Get to know friends’ parents
Offer support and understanding to your child
Share your own values and expectations
Remember that family cannot solve ever friend-related difficulty

When is conflict bullying?Navigating friendship troubles

Supporting friendship skills with you school-ager

School-agers are growing in the social relationships while they are also developing their own self-identity. While they want to be like their friends, they are also realizing that they are separate individuals who may like different things. They are truly trying to find their place in each environment they step into.

Learn More

Sibling Play

Siblings don’t always get along!

As kids get older, they vie for the same toys, and, as the younger one becomes more independent, they get tired of being bossed around by older siblings. Because young children aren’t able to express these frustrations verbally, they do so by misbehaving—refusing to share, hitting, pushing, yelling, etc.

Helping siblings get along:

Set ground rules or acceptable behaviors
Give them each what they need, rather than being “equal”
Be proactive with attention and time apart
Make sure each child has their own space to do their own thing
Teach them they are safe, loved, and important
Have fun together as a family

Lori Blahey August 4, and Lori Blahey. “The Power of Play: 6 Benefits for Child Development .” Edmonton Public Library. Accessed March 10, 2022. https://www.epl.ca/blogs/post/importance-of-play-for-kids/.

“10 Things Every Parent Should Know about Play.” NAEYC. Accessed March 10, 2022. https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/10-things-every-parent-play.

Pendley, Jennifer Shroff, ed. “Sibling Rivalry (for Parents) – Nemours Kidshealth.” KidsHealth. The Nemours Foundation, September 2016. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/sibling-rivalry.html.

Create a lasting impact through play

Children learn through their play.

Cognitive Skills

Physical Skills

New Vocabulary

Social Skills

Literacy Skills

Why is play important for children?

Play builds imagination and creativity

Children need time for unstructured play

Social-emotional skills are essential for life success

Play improves language and literacy

Play encourages greater independence

Play promotes physical skills

Understanding Play

UNLearning Workshop Series with Conner Prairie

Social stages of play

Ages Zero to Two Years

Age Two Years

Older than Two Years

Two to Three Years

Four to Six Years

Getting Creative: Unique Ideas for your Preschool Artist

Tots & Touch Screens! Making Sense of Technology for Young Children

Sibling Play: Activities for the Whole Family

Local outdoor experiences for your family

Creek Stomping

Splash Pads

Playgrounds

Exploring the Outdoors

Children’s bodies are wired to be active.

Outdoor play helps children:

2022 Farmers Market Resource

Risk Taking and Play

What is risky play?

The benefits of appropriate risk taking

Incorporating risk taking into play

Technology Tips

Play for School-Agers

It’s all about experiences.

Tips for supporting your school-ager through social situations:

Supporting friendship skills with you school-ager

Siblings don’t always get along!

Helping siblings get along:

Read more from our team of experts.

Infant and Toddler Play and Learning

Preschool and School Age Play and Learning

Let’s Put a Ban on Sharing

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