Stages of Play from Childrens Home Society of WA

Foundation for Early Learning is delighted to feature a guest blog post from our partner Deborah Oroszlan of Children Homes Society of Washington. If you are interested in being featured in the Foundation's blog, please contact Joel Ballezza, Communications Manager at joel@earlylearning.org.

As children grow, they progress through very distinct stages of play.  Babies are interested in people and their surroundings primarily as a means to develop their senses, gain control over their bodies and to begin to understand how to interact with people.  In this first stage of play, they will enjoy playing alone, constantly engaged in exploring and discovering the world and will focus on gathering and storing information they will use in the future.

Parallel play, begins to evolve as children reach their second birthday.  Up to this stage they have focused on learning how to control their bodies and enjoy interacting with people and objects.  As this next stage evolves, children will play with similar toys next to one another in the same area, but with very little interaction.

Around the age three or four, as children gain more experience, knowledge, and skills, they will begin to play together in a loosely associated way.  Two or more children will start to loosely engage in play with toys together and will begin to interact and communicate about what they are doing.

Cooperative play evolves as children reach the age of four and five. At this stage, more complex friendships will typically start to develop, as children use language to exchange ideas about toys and activities.  This type of play provides an important opportunity for children to learn social skills like sharing, taking turns, and following rules as they engage in play together.

The following list of age-appropriate toys will encourage your children's involvement in a variety of different learning experiences through each stage of play.

Birth to 6 months

• Safety mirrors

• Teething toys

• Large, interlocking rings or keys

• Soft dolls

• Rattles

• Washable baby books

6-12 months

• Balls
• Nesting and stacking toys
• Simple shape sorters
• Soft blocks
• Bath toys
• Squeeze/squeak toys
• Cloth and cardboard picture books
  

1-2 Years

• Balls
• Push-pull toys
• Ride-on toys (feet-propelled)
• Blocks
• Nesting and stacking toys
• Simple peg-board
• Puzzles with knobs (whole-object pieces)
• Bath and water toys
• Shape sorter
• Sets and scenes-like farm, garage, airport
• Cardboard picture books, pop-up books
  

2-3 years

• Balls
• Large beads for stringing
• Telephone
• Puzzles with knobs (whole-object pieces that fit into simple scenes)
• Blocks for building
• Play household items (telephone, lawn mower, workbench, shopping cart, kitchen equipment and gadgets)
• Non-toxic art supplies (crayons and coloring books, clay, finger-paints, sidewalk chalk)
• Rhythm instruments
• Stuffed animals and dolls that can be bathed, fed and diapered
• Books-like interactive, pop-up and tactile
  

3-6 years

• Tricycle and  helmet
• Manipulative and Building toys-like blocks, snap together, connecting
• Color cubes and pattern blocks
• Lacing and threading sets
• Puzzles (10-20 pieces)
• Stuffed animals, Dolls and Puppets
• Play vehicles
• Dress up and pretend play items
• Music/CD Player
• Non-toxic art supplies(safety scissors, construction paper, crayons)
• Simple board games, word, and matching games
• Storybooks