Play is a child's best day's work

IT MAY be just child's play to an adult but for a child play is the most important `work' he or she can do. It's all about learning about the world and how best to interact with it. The German educationalist, Friedrich Froebel, who invented the idea of kindergarten, meant it to be a garden where children could play rather than a pedagogic institution focused on specific learning tasks for pre school children.

Giving babies and young children the opportunity to play in an open ended manner can sometimes be seen as unconstructive in these success oriented times yet unstructured play offers some of the most beneficial learning experiences young children can have. "Babies and young children learn through imitating, repeating, exploring and experimenting, says Louise Burke, play therapist at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin. "As the child's memory develops, he or she is able to make judgements and categorise what he knows."

For the first year and a half, the infant's play focuses on learning as much as possible about sensory/ motor skills. This means having lots of opportunities to see, hear, touch, smell and taste a wide variety of things in an environment which allows the infant to move around according to her capacity at the time.

"The good teacher," according to Burke, "is the adult who encourages the learning situation by sharing interest and enjoyment as well as providing materials which lead on to the next stage of development."

Babies and toddlers are very sensitive to mood so it is better not to play games you don't enjoy yourself. They will be confused or hurt by the contradiction between attitude and action.

"Parents need to be careful that they don't hinder the child's play by determining how the child should play with certain toys," Burke explains. "Part of the child's learning about the outside world is through constant experimenting."

Anything from your bright yellow (clean) washing up gloves dangling over the pram handle to watching mammy do yoga next to him on the floor can be playful for babies and toddlers. "A lot of parents tend to buy toys for their children instead of looking around the house for suitable things to play with," continues Burke.

Household objects are perfect playthings for toddlers. Much fun and valuable information can be extracted from empty boxes, plastic bottles, wickerwork baskets, bowls, egg cups, plastic cups, saucepans, biscuit tins and kitchen utensils such as soup laddles and fish slices - provided, of course, that they are thorough washed out and sterilised beforehand.

Natural objects such as fir cones, shells, chestnuts and feathers can provide interesting sensory explorations for supervised toddlers. Playing games such as hide and seek are also very important to help the young child develop the concept of object permanence.

"Brightly coloured building bricks are the universal toy for pre school children," says Burke. "They meet developmental needs at each stage, from grasping and sucking to building and knocking down."

Children need quality playtime with parents as well as their own space to develop themselves, she adds. "It's a good idea for children to have a space of their own where they have their own little world for imaginative play. They learn about the real world by acting out things in their own world.

Parents and toddlers groups also provide a useful focus for young children to learn to play with other children before entering the more formal surroundings of school. "Children learn so much from other children," says Burke. "As well as learning how to share toys, they begin to learn how to relate to the world."

In a more therapeutic note, Burke adds that play is a very useful way of dealing with children's fears such as that of an operation. "In the hospital we have teddy bears who have had operations and the children can learn about procedures by being the doctor and giving the teddy bear medicine. They relate much better to their own operation if they are in control of the situation themselves beforehand through play."