Phillip Glickman/Unsplash Louise Grimmer, University of Tasmania and Martin Grimmer, University of Tasmania The festive season reinforces something parents and carers already know – many children today have a lot of toys. In the United States, children receive more than…
Experts believe that infants should get some interactive floor-based physical activity two to three times a day. Sam Edwards/OJO Images via Getty Images Danae Dinkel, University of Nebraska Omaha When people set personal fitness goals and establish their physical exercise…
Messy play can help your child to learn about the world, it can have a soothing effect, and it is great fun. In this article, we’ll show you how to set up messy play without it getting out of control.
Jessie D. Guest, University of South Carolina As many children go back to school after 18 months of global pandemic, social isolation and on-and-off remote learning, they too are feeling the additional stress and uncertainty of these times. Children need…
Emotional regulation. Sometimes our feelings can get a little tricky. Mostly, we can experience an emotion and get on with our life. But sometimes, an emotion can be so strong that we feel overwhelmed. This is the sense of a…
In this article, we are going to learn how to use Scaling to help your child understand and get control of their feelings. If your child can recognise and scale feelings they are more likely to gain a sense of control and less likely to be overwhelmed by their feelings.
Playdough is a fabulous material to help children's sensory development. And as a sensory activity, playdough can help children manage their feelings. It’s very soothing to just play with the dough and squidge it around. Making things is a distracting activity that can have a calming effect. And sometimes, pummeling the dough can help to get those strong feelings out.
Movement play is about enjoying our physical existence in the world. It has benefits in terms of health and fitness, and is an important factor in brain development, but also has implications for emotional health.
Like all kinds of play, make-believe play is important for development. Through it, your child can learn social and emotional skills, language and thinking skills. Make-believe play allows your child to explore characters, emotions and roles, in a safe way. They can use make-believe to make sense of their world, processing difficult emotions and learning about themselves and others. At challenging times it really comes into its own.
I am sure you’ve read those articles about the different types of play. Sixteen types of play. Twelve types of play. Pick a number. Well, I’ll make it simple for you. Three. That’s all you need. Three types of play to help your child develop, and become the boss of their feelings.
