Play skills for children

Developing Play Skills 

Managing social interaction in a group requires different skills from those needed for one-on-one interactions.

Parents and professionals can support the development of a child’s play skills. This can be provided through naturalistic teaching (teaching in the moment), structured playgroups, therapy or intervention programs.

When developing play skills, it can be important to identify where children and young people are in terms of development. This way you can extend their play skills.

It is important to ensure play is enjoyable when developing play skills. Use someone that the child is comfortable with. Take time to ensure children and young people are not getting upset by attempts to join in or contribute to the play experience. Ensure play skills are developed at children's and young people's levels, such as on the floor. Once the child or young person is more comfortable, less familiar adults may be used and experiences can be extended.

Developing observation and play skills is often supported by prompting and reinforcement.

Solitary Play

This is when a child plays with objects on their own without showing an attempt to initiate play with others. Or the child is actively trying to avoid others.

To develop a child’s tolerance to be able to interact with another person, you may want to consider the following strategies:

• Position yourself close to the child or young person and attempt to draw their attention to you during play activities. This can include copying their actions or mimicking the sounds they are making. An example would be to push a train on a track and say “toot, toot”.
• If the children or young person is engaging in a task, attempt to join in. For example, if they are stacking blocks, try to add one.
• Play with one of the children or young person's preferred toys and engage with them when they approach.
• Encourage the idea of ‘play’ as something that you do by using the words “let’s play” and “good playing”.

Parallel Play 

This is when a child plays alongside other children using a similar toy, such as a train, or a bucket and spade.

Children and young people may apply attention to others playing for short periods of time, then return to their own object or activity.

Develop social play through joint attention, turn-taking and different ways of playing with items. This will allow them to learn and follow simple demands and requests.

Strategies for parallel play include: 

• Directing children and young people's attention to other children’s play by saying “look what they are doing”.
• Providing opportunities to engage in structured turn-taking games and activities. This could include jigsaw puzzles, Potato Heads and Jack-in-the-box. Use verbal prompts like “my turn” and “your turn”.
• Provide prompts to request toys and items from other children. This could be either verbally, or through non-verbal communication.

Cooperative or Social Play 

This is when children play together with others and have an interest in both the activity and the other children involved.

Encourage children and young people to demonstrate skills in working in groups and their need to interact with others.

Strategies for cooperative and social play include: 

• Breaking tasks down so that they have a clear start and finish point.
• Providing structure such as visual supports.
• Encouraging choice making skills in 'free time'.
• Parents and carers can model what to say to other children during play. For example, “Can I play?’, “Will you play with me?” and “Can I please have the turn next?”.
• Encouraging and modelling turn-taking skills - “Johns's turn”, “your turn”.
• Encouraging joint attention - “What are they doing?”.
• Developing skills to cope with change and transition.
• Providing structure to increase participation in group activities. This could be activities such as mat time and music time.
• Slowly increase the size of social groups.
• Slowly increase the length of social interaction.

Including a schedule of structured and unstructured play times so they can practice choice making.

When children reach their teenage years, there can be further challenges to ‘fit in’ and feel part of a group. While parties and social gatherings can help them learn and practice skills, they can also cause a lot of stress or anxiety.

It’s helpful to remember that all teenagers struggle with these events. Try not to force children and young people to take part in too much social interaction if it makes them feel unhappy or uncomfortable. Some children and young people are satisfied with short periods of social interaction and this should be respected.