Playtime: Don't Get Rid of Those Soft Toys - They're Actually Good for Development!

When Em was born, I couldn't believe how many soft toys we got as gifts and I remember thinking at the time - what on earth are we going to do with all of these? Well, fast forward almost 10 years and our soft toy collection has at least quadrupled in that time and doesn't look like shrinking any time soon!

Soft toys are great for development. Their sweet little faces and soft furry ways help encourage empathy, compassion and caring. They can also be a reassuring source of comfort for a child who is feeling sad or insecure. There are plenty of ways to encourage soft toy play.

For Babies 
Have a basket of 3 or 4 accessible for baby play time. Choose toys that do not have any loose bows or buttons that can fall off. It's great if the toys have smaller limbs or a tail that baby can grab and hold onto. Remember that babies will always put toys in heir mouth so make sure no bits of fur or fluff can come off.

Baby will practice using her fine motor skills grabbing her soft toys and will feel happy and secure looking at friendly, kind faces. She may also enjoy kissing and cuddling the toys and older babies might even start to like to feed them a bottle or some pretend food. You could also add a soft baby brush so she could brush her fur.

For Toddlers
Soft toys are great play companions for toddlers. They can be put into bags, prams, boxes, carts, baskets and ride on cars and taken out again. This is one of toddlers' favourite things to do.

A toddler will play out social situations with her soft toys and help to look after them. This works on her empathy, compassion and caring skills. Playing out social situations also helps your toddler to make sense of her social world and her place in it.

For preschoolers and older children
Preschoolers and older children will enjoy constructing entire imaginative worlds for their soft toys. Your preschooler will perhaps start by making voices and acting out a role using the toy. With this kind of play, the toys are the centre of the imaginative process. They will need props or accessories which can be created by your child, bringing in the possibility of a range of art and craft activities too. Over the years we have made teddy jewellery, back packs,  shoe box beds, tissue box cars, school books, invitations, hats, clothes, just to name a few.

Your preschooler or older child will work on his social and emotional skills during this kind of imaginative play activity. He will play out social situations he has been in and will use the toys to play out different outcomes. By giving his toys different personalities, he is learning to look at situations through other people's eyes and reinforcing what he knows about caring. Making and creating props and accessories for toys works on fine motor skills as well as literacy and numeracy skills.

Fun Soft Toy moments

Some teddy bear jewellery as modeled for a PP photo shoot

Teddies in an indoor tent

A soft toy, a shoe box and a ramp - hours of fun

A homemade shoe box bed  - Good night!

When Baby becomes a Toddler ..

My lovely god-daughter is now 19 months old and, I have to say, looking after her is a much busier time than it used to be when she would sit exactly where I put her.

The first time I looked after her after she started confidently moving around was quite a challenge and I really had to re-think what toys I put out for her to use and where I put them. This led me to write an article that is feautured on pg 66 of this month's "Practical Parenting" magazine - called "Baby on the Move"

It's all about how life (and play) changes after baby starts to move around and includes some ideas on "play stations" to set up for a baby who has just become a "toddler". These play station ideas are really open-ended, so they suit children aged from around 9 months, all the way up to children who are almost 2. They can be varied according to the interests of your child.

When I did this for my little Ally, she played independently for over an hour, keeping herself busy with what I had set up. I just made sure I wasn't far away so she could come and visit and play near me if she needed to and I also made sure I checked in on her every now and then, asking her questions and showing her toys she hadn't discovered yet.

Here is what I set up for her:

A dolly to feed

Some furry friends

A place to hide (her favourite thing)

Some baby toys and musical instruments

Some noisy buttons to press

Interesting animals

Somewhere to sit

Some light reading

A basket of pegs

I spread everything out around the loungeroom so she could move about and explore

This was a couple of months ago now, but I looked after her just the other week and did a similar set up, with the play stations just a little more elaborate now she's older. She still had her cubby, but I added some blankets, food and a high chair for the baby and also set up a pretend cooking area for her.

The wondeful thing about these play experiences is they can keep little ones busy and engaged for long periods of time. Setting small staions up around the room like this allows children to go from one thing to another (as young children are prone to do) and then back to things they enjoy, without getting bored. It also gives them lots of opportunity to
- practice motor skills
- problem solve
- explore
- have an effect on their environment
- create and imagine
- concentrate
- use their memory
- practice language skills
- play out things they see mum and dad do

I'm looking forward to her next visit. I have some ideas up my sleeve taht I can't wait to try out. I'll keep you posted

June Practical Parenting

I have an article in 'Practical Parenting' this month, so check it out if you get a chance. It includes some 'Rainy Day Play Ideas' for both babies and toddlers.

It can be tricky trying to find play ideas that suit a wide variety of age groups. I had my own dilemma last week when I had Em home with a cold, Ed, of course, and my 15 month old god daughter to look after.

I got them busy doing a group drawing. I put a large sheet of cardboard onto the ground to provide a firm backing for the paper. Then I spread out a large sheet of paper so that there was plenty of room for everybody. I grabbed Em's texta bucket to share and left them all to it. They were just in the dining room while I was in the kitchen, so I was close by if I was needed.



They all had a really great time and there were no dramas. Em helped my god-daughter with the texta lids and also talked a lot about colours and what everyone was drawing. Ed helped out too.

It was a great activity to keep them busy and help practice drawing skills, but it also provided a great opportunity to build on language skills and encouraged social skills like peer-teaching, considering others and sharing.