The Importance of PLAY for Speech and Language Development {With Tips}

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Fred Rogers

As quoted above play is the work of childhood. Even when your child is playing silently, they are learning important information that they will carry with them and use later. And this starts the day they are born! Those little finger plays and games of peek-a-boo really do help your child learn. As they grow and develop, they begin to learn more and more complex ideas through play. Here are 5 ways children learn speech and language through play, from infancy on.

They Watch

Your children WATCH others’ actions. This starts as soon as they are born. They start watching your face first, taking in your expressions. As they get older, they watch more and more of our actions- they will watch your play, their siblings play, and other children’s play and LEARN. In terms of speech and language development….

• Your child watches your mouth as you talk, starting as an infant. She files these movements away for later use. 
• Your child watches your facial expressions during all sorts of experiences and moods and starts to correlate which facial expressions go with what moods/feelings.
• Your child watches your body language when you speak and communicate and will start to learn what your body language means.
• Your child watches you, siblings and peers play and will later imitate (see below) these actions in her own play, including language that goes along with the play.

They Listen

While they are watching us, children are also LISTENING to us as well. Again, this starts the day they are born (actually, this begins  BEFORE birth!) They listen to all the sounds we make, the words we say and the sentences we form. In the beginning, they won’t mean anything but soon all these words will begin to make sense to them. They will be listening to YOU play with them, siblings and peers and will begin to imitate (see below) those words.

They Explore

Here is where PLAY really gets important. Your child will begin to explore. They explore the things around them and manipulate them. They “play” with them. As he does this, you are sitting with him and you are playing and talking with him. He is watching you and listening to you. When you put the block on the tower and say “Look at my block!” He is learning the word for “block.” When you place the block in the basket and say “Let’s put the blocks away!” he is learning the word for “away.” He is also watching you do these actions and taking note so he can try them too. This exploring and playing goes on through childhood, both while you are playing with him and while he is playing with peers, siblings and even during solitary play.

They Imitate

All this watching and listening is going to start to pay off.  Your child starts to IMITATE your actions and the sounds he hears around him. Though you may not realize it, the gross motor imitation your little one starts doing in the form of clapping, waving, moving, etc as an infant is actually a prelanguage skill! Yes! Believe it or not early gross motor imitation is a precursor to language!

Specifically in regards to speech and language imitation, this begins as the coos you hear at just a few months of age and then will move to babbling and soon real words.  So those silly little rhymes and finger plays that you do with your infants and toddlers? They are helping to lay the foundation of your child’s speech, language, communication and social skills! All those times that you are sitting with your child, narrating your actions and their own…you know, the times you fell like a crazy person talking to yourself sometimes? This is teaching your child LANGUAGE.  

They Create/Formulate and Use Language for Purpose

Now your child is going to put it all together. All those skills he has been working on…all that watching, listening, exploring and imitating is going to help your child begin to create and formulate his own words and sentences. Then, he will be using this language for purpose. He will use these new words to communicate his needs and wants and share information. He will use this new language in his play with you, siblings, peers and even in solitary play. I remember my oldest son at just age two, would make many sound effects and would talk about what he was doing during his solitary play. As my children got older, they continued but with much longer and more complex utterances and ideas. All of my children use their language during play with each other and with their peers, all the while creating and formulating new ideas and sentences and using that language to communicate and share. The more they do this, the more they are learning!

Five Tips for Using PLAY to Expand and Extend Your Child’s Speech and Language Development

This is where YOU come in. How can YOU best help your child expand his speech and language skills through PLAY? Here are my 5 tips.

1. Pick Open Ended Toys (And Ditch the Batteries)

When looking for toys for your child to play with, pick toys that provide OPEN ENDED PLAY. You want toys where your child “does the doing” and not the toy. And…please, ditch the batteries as much as possible. It is ok to have a few toys with batteries (a few in my own home include a couple cameras that take real pictures, a toy vacuum, and a play lap top) but make this the exception, and not the rule. For some of my toy recommendations, check out my four part series HERE

I also love this post Free Play With Loose Parts: What, Why How by Cathy at Nurture Store. She shares how you can use random household things to inspire open ended play (comes with a free printable too!).

2. Don’t Worry About Gender

When picking toys for your child, don’t stick to gender specific toys. Let your girls play with trucks and trains and your boys play with toy kitchens and baby dolls. Here is some research on The Impact of Specific Toys on Play from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

“What set the highest-scoring toys apart was that they prompted problem solving, social interaction, and creative expression in both boys and girls. Interestingly, toys that have traditionally been viewed as male oriented—construction toys and toy vehicles, for example—elicited the highest quality play among girls. So, try to set aside previous conceptions about what inspires male and female play and objectively observe toy effects to be sure boys and girls equally benefit from play materials.”

I contributed to a great post all about why all children (even boys) should have a baby doll. You can read it at Mama OT.

3. Set up Open Ended Play Schemes

Setting up your child with some open ended play schemes is a GREAT way to help his/her language skills and introduce him/her to a wide variety of vocabulary and concepts. For example, you can set up some train tracks with trains, cars on a track, some play food in the kitchen, a pretend restaurant, a pretend post office, grocery store play, super hero play, etc.

4. PLAY and be PRESENT with Your Children

There are times when children need their independent play time. However they also benefit from your presence. Read my post HERE where I explain more on why being PRESENT with your children and playing with them is SO important.

5. Use These Tips on How to Help Your Child Talk

I’ve shared these tips/tools in my post Top 10 Summer Activities to Encourage Your Toddler’s Speech Development {A Summer Challenge}. While getting down with your child and PLAYING while being 100% PRESENT, you will have the opportunity to really help expand your child’s speech and language skills. For additional tips, check out my How to Help Your Child Talk page.

1. Five Tips to Help Your Toddler Learn Language and Communicate. This is a guest post I did at one of my favorite blogs Toddler Approved several months ago. I provide my top 5 tips for helping your child learn language and communicate. Use these 5 tools in your tool box when playing with your child to help expand his/her speech, language and communication skills!
2. Questions: Why Less is More: Part ONE and Part TWO: In my two posts, I explain the importance of not asking too many questions while interacting with your young children and give tips on how to use questions minimally but effectively. Make sure to read Part One and Part Two and think about your language as you play with your child this summer.
3. Expansions and Extensions: I am constantly using these with my own children when they are toddlers. These are great for your children who have just started talking all the way up to children speaking in short sentences. A must have in your toolbox for this summer.

More Reading Regarding PLAY and Overall Development

Here are some additional thought provoking articles on play and development.  Ditch the flashcards and PLAY.

Want to Get Your Kids Into College? Let Them Play by Erika Christakis and Nicholas Christakis on CNN.com

Einstein May Never Have Used Flashcards, but He Probably Built Forts by Lory Hough from Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Power of Play in the Early Learning Environment by Deborah from Teach Preschool (MUST READ)

Don’t Let Your Preschoolers Forget How to Play by Janet Lansbury

The Central Importance of Play by Anna from The Imagination Tree

I originally wrote this post as part of the 100 Days of Play Challenge hosted by SunScholars and Life at the Zoo on June 13, 2013. What was 100 Days of Play? “For 100 days, commit to connecting with your children ~ in their world.  Commit to 100 Days of Play!  Let the housework sit untouched for 30 minutes, get away from the stress of the world, get on the floor and give the gift of your time to your children., no doubt you have seen some amazing ideas on how to PLAY with your little one!” Head to SunScholars for more info and more ways to play.