Little Tikes Commercial

from Parks & Recreation Playground Guide 2020

Landscape Structures Inc

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

How Play Boosts Communication and Literacy Skills in Children

Before children ever step into a school, they’re introduced to their local playground. A playground can be a child’s first encounter with the world and the children who are a part of it. By interacting with others, children develop language skills. Keep reading to learn more.

Different Types of Play

To understand how play benefits language development, we first need to understand the different types of play — free play and guided play. Free play is what you would associate with traditional outdoor play. It’s unstructured, and children choose to do so of their own free will. It promotes imaginative minds and an enthusiasm for discovery amongst children.

Guided play focuses specifically on pre-determined learning goals while maintaining the enjoyable aspects of free play. Guided play allows for gentle adult guidance. Together, both principles ensure that the child progresses toward the learning goal.

How to Encourage Pretend Play

Pretend play is composed of real-life representations of everyday roles and relationships. Children have been known to emulate various behaviors at the playground, from reading a book bound together with leaves to playing doctor with a friend.

These activities, like building representative experiences through the creation of imaginary worlds, strengthen children’s visionary insight and forge meaning in the acts for the children involved. Therefore, the symbolism involved in reading a book or playing doctor becomes more than just pretend play. It serves as a bridge to literacy.

Learning Through Play at Your Playground

Little Tikes Commercial was founded on the idea that all children deserve to play in a way that makes their lives better. To Rediscover Little Tikes Commercial, visit LittleTikesCommercial.com.

Outdoor Play Aids Language Development

The importance of play for language development can’t be stressed enough. Communication development happens most effectively during dramatic play. “Gentle adult guidance,” as noted above, could be paramount in children’s understanding of relationships during role-play.

Props and objects: Using different objects in role-play permits children to practice vocabulary by identifying the items they have in use. They may, for example, designate a rock as a cellphone.

Roles and themes: Role-play creates the need for multiple roles and a main theme. Whether the game is doctor or construction, children need to familiarize themselves with industry language.

Pretend play: Pretend play launches children into an assortment of situations and scenarios that need language to resolve. For instance, children will frequently narrate their actions while playing.