It may be hard to imagine when it’s your 10th time playing Daniel Tiger in as many hours, but play is how toddler skills are built.
Do you love getting down on the floor and pretending to be Mom Tiger? Then you may be breathing a sigh of relief right now. But if make believe and play are not your favorite things, then the idea of essential learning taking place during play time may feel like a lot of pressure.
But there is good news. There are simple ways to up level your play time and ensure your toddler is getting the most development from your activities together. That means they’re learning more and even better? You can rest easy knowing they are building the skills they need for preschool and beyond. (Even if you only play pretend one hour that day instead of the 12 your toddler might prefer.)
What Key Toddler Skills Can Be Learned Through Play?
So, what are these key skills that can be built through play? There are so many! Read below for a few of the most important toddler skills that can help your little one prepare for preschool and improve behavior.
Focus and Attention
Little kids have equally little attention spans, but we can use play opportunities to help them strengthen their focus. Building this skill will be crucial as they head into preschool and other school environments. It’s there that they will be expected to follow instructions, participate in group activities or do more things independently.
Perseverance and Desire to Learn
If your little one gets frustrated easily when challenged by a new skill, then this one’s for you. We can actually help our kids learn to love the hard work of learning through play! Working together on a puzzle is a great example of play that can help our kids stay engaged even when presented with a challenge.
Language Skills
If your toddler is still not saying many words, there are many ways to build language development into play. If your little one makes a new sound in relation to a toy, for example, go with it! Hand them the toy if they seem to be requesting it or make the sound part of your play. For example, saying the new sound each time you roll a ball.
How to Teach Toddler Skills Through Play
So how exactly can you build these (and other) key toddler life skills through play? I recently shared 6 ways to integrate social and communication skills into play with Mightier. Mightier is an organization that works to build better emotional regulation in children through practice and playing games.
Read my article on the Mightier blog for a full list of play-based ways to teach key toddler skills.