For The Love Of Parenting
For the Love of Parenting, is a podcast celebrating parenthood's journey. From pregnancy through childbirth, breastfeeding, and the diverse experiences of raising children, offering guidance, stories, and expert insights to support parents from the magical moments to the real-life challenges of parenthood. We recognize there's no singular perfect path but numerous ways to be a loving, supportive parent. Tune in for insightful discussions, heartfelt stories, and a community that celebrates the love and dedication of being a parent.
For The Love Of Parenting
Boost Baby's Growth With Playtime Magic Now! - Episode 38
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What's Up Wednesdays!
What does play help your child do?
Are there different ways your child can play?
How can you, as a parent, encourage play with your child?
These are the questions we’ll explore in today’s episode.
Join me as I offer parents a fresh perspective on "play" and its significance as your child's brain's favorite way of learning. Discover why incorporating playtime into your baby’s daily schedule is essential for their development.
Want more information on how to help your child engage in play time or access a list of curated books to promote early literacy? Head over to the Milestones and Early Literacy sections of my website to learn more.
Contact:
For The Love of Parenting Podcast - Sponsored by Pregnancy Concepts LLC
DM us on IG @pregnacyconcepts
Email us at askus@pregnancyconcepts.com
Remember, as parents, do your best—there are no perfect parents, but countless ways to be loving and supportive. Signing off from the For Love of Parenting podcast. Thanks for listening. Until next time.
Title: Boost Baby's Growth with Playtime Magic Now
Intro Summary
What does play help your child do?
Are there different ways your child can play?
How can you, as a parent, encourage play with your child?
These are the questions we’ll explore in today’s episode.
Join me as I offer parents a fresh perspective on "play" and its significance as your child's brain's favorite way of learning. Discover why incorporating playtime into your baby’s daily schedule is essential for their development.
Podcast
Hello, For the Love of Parenting parents!
Throughout the month of September, I’ve decided to focus on child development milestones and games. I'm drawing on my early childhood education skills to offer parents a fresh perspective on the word "play" and how it's our brain's favorite way of learning.
I want you to ask yourself these three questions:
1. What does play help your child do?
2. Are there different types of ways your child can play?
3. How can you, as a parent, encourage play with your child?
Before answering these questions, let’s first define "play" and discuss why it matters.
Play is defined as spontaneous or organized activity that allows your child to have fun, be creative, generate original ideas, act on them, and concentrate. Essentially, your child is engaging in entertainment, enjoyment, amusement, or diversion through play. Now, I bet you didn’t realize that this four-letter word is so powerful! But there’s more—play is more than just fun and games. It helps children learn about themselves and the world around them, explore different interests and passions, encourage interactions and sharing, and develop essential life skills.
What’s great about play is that it can start at any age—even as a baby! Play promotes motor, sensory, communication, and social-emotional development.
Let’s take a closer look:
Motor Skills: Essential for physical strength and movement, these skills are used every day throughout our lives. They develop after birth and continue to evolve as your child grows.
Sensory Skills: This is the process by which we receive information through our senses, organize it, and use it in everyday activities.
Communication Skills: Communication is more than just talking—it’s any form of message sent from one person to another, including sounds, words, and body language.
So, how often should you engage your child in play? Every day! And I’m not talking about handing them a cell phone or another electronic device—we’re all guilty of this, but it’s not the same as physical play. When your child engages in play, it should be balanced and take two forms:
1. Structured Play: This requires your child to follow directions or roles and is usually guided by an adult. Examples include playing board games, doing puzzles, participating in an organized class like dance or art, or engaging in team sports.
2. Unstructured Play: This allows your child to do whatever interests them without many directions or instructions. Examples include playing dress-up or exploring the outdoors.
Your toddler should spend at least one hour a day in free, unstructured playtime and at least 30 minutes in structured playtime.
Now that we’ve defined play and why it matters, let’s revisit the questions I posed earlier. Let’s see if you were paying attention!
1. What does play help your child do?
- Learn about themselves
- Learn about the world around them
- Explore their interests
- Socialize with others
- Use practical and important life skills
2. Are there different types of ways your child can play?
- Yes! Unstructured play and structured play.
Now how do you think you can encourage play in your child. This was question #3, which I didn’t already go over, but go ahead and take a guess.
3. How can you encourage play in your child?
- Let your child direct playtime, which can be hard for some parents.
- Ask questions. As your child gets older, open-ended questions are best as they encourage more communication.
- Explore new surroundings—nature walks are great for this!
- Find ways to be silly—let go and release your inhibitions!
- Play with your child in different ways.
For more information on the power of play, head over to my website at www.pregnancyconcepts.com under the milestone section to learn how to use play to help your child meet their developmental milestones. And when you hover over that tab you will also see a tab for early literacy. There you will find a list of curated books to also help to develop your baby’s growth and development. Note: as an Amazon Affiliate Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from my website.
That’s it for today’s podcast. The purpose of today’s episode was to introduce the concept of play and its importance. Join me next week for more developmental information and activities you can use to help your child reach their milestones.
I hope you learned something new today! I encourage you to get out and enjoy playing with your child—they’ll benefit so much, and you’ll benefit from watching them develop, absorb information, and learn new things.
Until next time, take care!