Kindy : Play & Learning

Your child is now a bold adventurer, readily exploring and learning about the world around them. Every moment that your child is awake he or she is learning boundless things about life, and themselves. Playing is an important factor in how a young child learns. Between the ages of 3 and 5 years, your child will evolve from playing alongside other children (parallel playing) to playing interactively with others (co-operative play). Playing with other children assists with your child’s social development, and builds vital life skills such as sharing, co-operating and feeling empathy.

Playing with your child becomes more complex at this age. It is less about physical discovery and more about experiences that will help stimulate their imagination, and in turn, aid intellectual development. Your child will most likely enjoy interactive playing with complex toys that incorporate various elements.

Games that integrate both actions and singing help your child to improve their memory and co-ordination. Drawing, painting and other practical endeavours develop fine motor skills and encourage creativity. Your child will also develop their cognitive and intellectual skills through play, as he or she learns to rationalise with general ideas and objects. Your child might like to play with ‘video games’ and other technical toys. While they can aid your child’s development exponentially, you shouldn’t rely on screen type games solely as a source of play for your child.

The kindy age years of a person’s life are a highly concentrated period of learning and development. Children learn by growing, watching, and experiencing the world and people around them. You should talk both to, and with, your child often, and read aloud to them from very early on, as this helps your little one as they start to expand upon their language and conversational skills. Reading together with your child also encourages them in developing their own reading, literacy and comprehensive skills as they grow, and assists to prepare them for the more structured learning environment of school.

raisingchildren.net.au. (2020, April 3). Imagining, creating and play: preschoolers. Retrieved from https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/play-preschooler-development/imagining-play-preschoolers