Nursery World - All in the game

Play is not an ability that only starts after age three, says Jennie Lindon - it's developing at all times in many ways Practitioners and parents who observe babies and toddlers closely are in no doubt that they play. Yet it is not unusual to hear under-threes described mainly in terms of all the play activities they cannot yet do, or the 'awful mess' they make. Perhaps this tunnel vision about what counts as 'proper play' arises because so much has been written about the play of children older than three years.

Practitioners and parents who observe babies and toddlers closely are in no doubt that they play. Yet it is not unusual to hear under-threes described mainly in terms of all the play activities they cannot yet do, or the 'awful mess' they make. Perhaps this tunnel vision about what counts as 'proper play' arises because so much has been written about the play of children older than three years.

Social start

Some descriptions of the progression of play in the early years are very firm about a clear developmental pattern. Stages are proposed to be the 'solitary play' of toddlers, moving into 'parallel play' with young children, on to 'associative play' with brief interactions and finally to 'co-operative play' in which children take clear roles in lengthy play sequences.

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