Tips to Incorporate More Language and Problem-Solving During Play

While playing a game may seem like just a fun way to pass the time, it’s instrumental for children’s growth and development. Play helps children gain cognitive, emotional, motor and linguistic abilities. It also helps them learn about themselves and the world around them. Play is rich with opportunities for learning in whatever way works best for each individual.

Pediatric therapy providers, parents and caregivers understand the importance of play-based therapy, particularly when developmental skills are not emerging exactly as expected. Read on for fresh insights and ideas into how you can better facilitate communication development through play. You’ll be helping your client’s speech and language development, executive functioning and other cognitive skills, while also sharing in the joy that play provides.

Different Ways to Play and Communicate for Each Stage

As children develop, their playing style evolves to fit their interests, environment and expanding skill sets. The age span of developmental milestones — particularly in play skills —  can be variable. Knowing the value that comes from each of these different types of play allows you to coordinate the child’s play type with the speech and language strategies that will work best. 

You’ll also notice their preferences for certain types of play and for items or scenarios within those types. Build those preferences into your therapy session for a more effective and enjoyable intervention.  

Understanding different stages of play helps you introduce appropriate types of play-based speech therapy and language to align with the child’s developmental functioning. Here’s an overview of 6 common play stages:

1. Sensory Motor Exploration

In the earliest stages of play, babies and toddlers learn how to move their bodies and take in a lot of sensory input. Assigning language to movements, sights, sounds, smells and physical sensations is a great way to infuse language into play. Play-based language therapy can also include sounds, noises and sound effects that are enjoyable and interesting to the baby.

You’ll know you’re playing when you see calm, alert and happy responses from the preverbal baby. Clapping hands, waving, playing peek-a-boo and joining in on tummy time are some ways to encourage sensory motor exploration.

2. Symbolic or Representational

Either alone or alongside others, children engage in symbolic play when they construct or create. Examples of this type of play include stacking blocks, using crayons and playing pretend. In this type of play, you can introduce vocabulary like action words, descriptors or nouns. You could also connect language skills and play by adding phrases like, “Hello, who is it?” or “Time to feed the chickens!” if the child is playing telephone or farm.

3. Spectator or Onlooker

The spectator stage refers to when the child watches others engage in play activities. They might be taking in the sights and sounds of play, noticing actions and language, and making cognitive connections like cause-and-effect.

Children showing this type of play may benefit from hearing language that notices, describes and comments on the sensory motor details of the play or on the pretend elements of the play scenario. This is where narrating or commentating can be useful. For example, you might say, “Oh, it looks like that boy is pretending to have a puppy. The puppy wants to play!” Alternatively, you could comment, “That baby loves to swing so high in the swing. The air feels windy on her face!”

4. Parallel Play

The parallel stage is a sweet spot where children learn from and alongside each other. Often, they use the same materials or play space but focus more on their own play experience. Parallel play sets the stage for developing social skills as children begin to notice how similarly or differently others play.

You can facilitate language while still embracing parallel play by not pushing ahead to more socially intertwined cooperative play until the child is ready. Encouraging language skills through play at this stage might look like, “You and Sam are both building with blocks.” Or, “His idea for the farm animals is different than yours, that’s neat.” You can also use this type of play to expand on vocabulary and syntax as you comment, “Your car was so fast, it raced by Katie’s farm!” or “She used all the colors in her drawing. It looks like a rainbow.”

5. Associative

During the associative stage, children have simple conversation exchanges as they play. They may alternate by working together on a play idea and then separating back to parallel play. You can facilitate communication development for both verbal and non-verbal communication. You might narrate about what you see kids doing non-verbally to begin drawing attention to this important part of communication. Exaggerating, adding humor or silliness and being expressive with your face and body language can help kids with their early conversation skills during associative play.

6. Cooperative

The cooperative play stage typically emerges as children approach school age. It is rich with communication skills and more complex language processes like negotiating, requesting and problem–solving. Depending on a child’s unique needs, it’s an ideal setting to practice these tricky skills with adult support and non-invasive participation. You might infuse speech and language strategies that support sound articulation while smoothing out social language mishaps that are bound to occur. You can play the part of the mistake-maker or the not-so-sure participant in the play activity to model language and social skills.

How Play Positively Impacts Speech and Language Development

Play activities provide an opportunity for children to build language and practice their speech, but there’s more to it than just fun and games. Here are some pivotal reasons why play is important for language development:

Encourages Communication

Whether communicating verbally, non-verbally or with an augmentative alternative communication (AAC) device, playing at any stage offers countless opportunities to build communication skills. Children may use their words to ask to join in or use a toy. They can practice more complex language and articulation as they explain the rules of a game or their pretend play ideas.

Playing near, around or with others exposes children to more vocabulary and different ways to express themselves. Through play scenarios and activities, you’ll discover countless opportunities to build and improve communication skills with your young clients.

Promotes Creativity 

Imaginative play allows children to let their ideas run wild. They can set the scene, establish the characters and present situations that are only possible in an imaginary world. Having the freedom to control the narrative allows them to explore language areas around their chosen theme.

Playing also encourages creative problem-solving and other cognitive skills related to language development. Planning a play scenario’s beginning, middle and end is an important part of language and cognitive development. Thinking and acting based on possibilities or alternative ideas deepens a child’s language and cognitive abilities. Additionally, creative conflict resolution occurs when children have opportunities to work out disagreements in play. 

Develops Social Skills 

No matter the play stage a child is in, they can observe, practice and refine their social interaction skills. They may pick up on different tones of voice, mimicking what adults around them say and the gestures they use. Think about young kids playing school and how they practice as the teacher and the student, adjusting their tone, words and gestures accordingly.

Here are three key components of social skills that begin developing as babies, toddlers and young children play:

• Turn-taking, listening and cooperating: Desirable toys, play equipment and games all encourage the building blocks of sharing and patience. Children can learn how to give and receive items by sharing toys with others. They can develop awareness of time, observation and coping by waiting their turn. Experiencing the effects of being kind, considerate and cooperative with others enhances their emotional development.
• Understanding nonverbal cues: Communication primarily consists of nonverbal cues, such as body language, eye contact and facial expressions. Engaging in all types of play helps children recognize these nonverbal cues more effectively. You can facilitate this understanding by explaining that a child looks excited to have a turn or unsure about what to do next. Model, exaggerate and use visuals like pictures or mirrors to cue into the expressions, gestures and actions that make up a large part of communication.
• Empathetic communication and perspective-taking: Engaging in play scenarios that involve role-playing and pretending helps children see things from another’s point of view. This can be done at a literal, concrete level where something appears different depending on how you look at it. Perspective–taking is also about thinking, considering and fostering curiosity about other people’s feelings and actions. Social interaction skills that include modeling and supporting empathetic communication are a wonderful gift you can give to this next generation of children.

Getting in the Game: Takeaways for Encouraging Language Development Through Play

Understanding the different stages and benefits of play for speech and language development puts you on track to more effectively promote communication skills in your work with young children. Consider these final takeaways for keeping your therapy sessions playful while you target your client‘s needs and goals:

• Embrace enjoyment: Playing with children is your opportunity to get silly! Put on a funny voice or pull a strange face. Watch your connection strengthen as you play!
• Be patient: While it might be tempting to direct play for maximum learning outcomes, do your best to follow the child’s lead in their interests and ideas.
• Repeat playtime activities: Doing the same activity again and again allows children to refine their skills. Using the same words and phrases also helps to reinforce these concepts in the child’s vocabulary.
• Model all types of communication: Children learn many skills from observing the adults in their lives. Model verbal and non-verbal communication in best-case scenarios and silly or “mistake” situations. Mistakes or mishaps are essential for showing kids how to repair or make corrections.
• Be curious: Narrate, wonder, think about and comment on the sensory features, social components and emotional experiences of play. Play is about enjoyment, and communication is about connection. Curiosity links play and communication for a winning interaction!

Better Support Skill Acquisition and Participation Through Play 

Pediatric therapy providers face tough challenges as they support children’s development in various areas. They’ll be the first to say that if therapy isn’t fun, participation and progress suffer. We hope these tips inspire your commitment to keeping the hard work of therapy fun, play-based and effective for the babies, toddlers and children you work with.

Our range of pediatric courses for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and developmental specialists target the topics you want and need to learn more about to better serve your clients. Learn more about current Live Courses, On–Demand Learning and options for producing a course that fits your unique needs!

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