The importance of play

Play is a way for children to explore, use their imagination, and make decisions about things. It is very enjoyable for them. Just as adults have work, children have play.

There is no one definition of what play is and how it should look. It should be freely chosen by the child and be a fun activity for them.

Play is a way for children to learn but it is also important beyond the value of learning. Play is also needed for relaxation and self-regulation.

How play supports your child's development

Play supports:

• Cognitive development: this is how we learn, think, and problem-solve from childhood through to adulthood.
• Social skills: Children can watch how others play, and copy and share ideas. As they grow older, children learn by making up games with rules. They learn about winning and losing and ‘playing fair’.
• Self-awareness: Children learn what games or toys they like and don’t like, increasing their understanding of themselves.
• Physical development:
  • Play can support the development of gross motor skills in children. Gross motor skills are needed to move and control the large muscles of the body for walking, running, sitting, crawling, and other activities.
  • Fine motor skills are the small, precise movements we make with our hands, fingers, feet and toes. Play activities are a good way to develop these also.
• Emotional development: Play can be a good release for energy or stress, and a means for children to express positive feelings.
• Communication skills: Whatever their level of language development, children can express their reactions in play for example, showing excitement in an activity they enjoy, or surprise when they experience something new.

Exploring Play

Here are tips for encouraging your child to explore play:

• Start with what your child loves to do: You could use toys or activities that you know they love, or if there is a toy or activity that your child loves in one setting, take it out into another.
• Copy their play: Copy what your child is doing and saying in their play – including actions, sounds, words, facial expressions. Avoid the temptation to change the play – your child is more likely to interact if you are engaging in play they are interested in.
• Encourage communication:
  • Offer Choices in Play: Offering choices creates an opportunity for your child to communicate with you, be in through words, sounds, gestures, body language, or facial expressions. Making a choice helps your child to understand and learn new words. It can also help reduce their frustration at not being understood.
  • Pause in Play: Stop during play your child enjoys, for example, tickles/songs/jumping /rhymes, and wait for them to react. This is as much about giving them time and space to react and communicate back to you. When you ask a question, or make a comment, or give directions, wait and pause for the response. Make sure to also pause after your child speaks to ensure they have finished. During play, as you are talking, pause where there is a word you want the child to say.
  • Add New Ideas: Add new words/sounds/actions to the play. This supports their understanding of new words and ideas while they are relaxed and having fun.
• Support understanding: Use simple language; include visual supports; repeat the same words often
• Praise and encourage any responses you get from your child. The praise should clearly state what you are praising them for.
• Model new play skills: show what an unfamiliar toy does and how it can be used. Make sure you are face-to-face with your child, so they have better opportunities to imitate or copy you. Use simple, step by step instructions.
• Engage regularly in play with your child.
• Alternate sit-down, structured play with more active, free play.
• If the game has too many rules, break it down to simpler steps.
• Use everyday moments to engage your child with play, for example, playing dress up will help your child to dress themselves.
• Understand that play won’t always go to plan – have some back up activities that you know your child loves if the new activity gets too challenging.
• Remember it can take a lot of effort for a child to engage in play, so plan regular breaks.

What other activities can help improve play?

• Experiment: Find out through experimentation what types of fun activities and games your child enjoys.
• Different locations: Play in different places (on the floor, at the table, outside on the grass).
• Board games: For an older child, play regularly with board games (for example, Snakes and Ladders or Guess Who). This will help to teach them how to play these types of games with other children and teach them that it’s alright to not always be the winner.
• Develop stories as you play and ensure play is directed by your child.

Stages of play development

Below outlines how a child develops their play skills over time – these skills may develop at different ages or stage for your child. It is not the definitive list of what play may look like for every child. What one child enjoys, another child may not.

For some neurodiverse children, for example, play activities that might be fun and motivating for them might be lining up toys, repeated actions in their play, or a strong focus on or a passion for particular activities, objects, or themes.

How can therapy support my child's play?

Therapeutic intervention (which is a type of specialised support) can help a child by:

• Supporting their ability to interact and play with peers.
• Encouraging them to engage positively with other children at school and when visiting places, such as the park or swimming pool.
• Developing their problem solving skills.
• Developing their communication skills.
• Supporting them to engage and complete activities at school that involve peer interactions (for example, a group project, or playing sport).
• Supporting them to learn about different activities or scenarios within the community (for example, playing shopping can model to a child how to select food, take it to the cashier and then pay for the items).

Further information

Other pages on this website

• Supporting your child’s fine motor skills through play 
• Sensory play 
• Visual supports 

Other websites

• See the Resources Section of the Ei SMART website for their series of play leaflets for children from 0-36 months. The leaflets are also available in different languages, such as, Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hindi. Our thanks to the Ei SMART team for permission to reproduce these resources here. For further information on their work, see www.eismart.co.uk

• See also the Hanen Centre and their articles and tips for parents on supporting your child’s communication:
• The Hanen Centre - The Power of Waiting: The Key to Supporting Your Child’s Communication
• https://www.hanen.org/information-tips/what-happens-when-you-play-with-autistic-children-without-toys
• https://www.hanen.org/information-tips/choosing-people-games
• https://www.hanen.org/information-tips/include-your-childs-interests

Page last reviewed: 13 July 2026

Next review due: 13 July 2027