Why Children PL AY the Way They Do PART 2 Core Play Patterns in Kids Ages 0 to 2 by Nancy Zwiers, CEO, Funosophy Inc.
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n last month’s issue of The Toy Book, Part 1* of this series discussed that children have a biologically based inner play drive that transcends time, geography, and culture. The Funosophy Play Theory introduced the concept that play is nature’s way of ensuring that our brains get wired in a systematic, predictable way, as children progress through three age-based stages of play. In this follow-up, we will delve more deeply into the first stage and examine core play patterns of children ages 0 to 2 years. (Note that the age breaks in the chart below are not discrete break points, but rather they represent a bell curve—some kids are earlier and some are later in transitioning to the next stage.)
242 • THE TOY BOOK
Infants and Toddlers (0 to 2 Years of Age) The primary role of play for infants and toddlers is to help them to structure their knowledge of the physical world. The brain circuit that supports development of the five senses and the ability to move one’s body through physical space—the sensorimotor system—gives rise to the first core play patterns that we all share throughout our lives. We never outgrow our desire to explore and discover and to master new abilities. This inner drive is how nature ensures we learn and grow.
Exploration & Discovery • Children are driven to explore their immediate environment, which in turn stimulates their five senses. The brain circuits for wiring our senses get developed in this way. For infants, the proximity senses (touch, taste, and smell) are the most important initially, while our distance senses of sight and sound grow in importance as infants grow older. Currently, with all our emphasis on lights and sound, the tactile nature of toys may be underdeveloped except for toys targeted to kids who are older than 6 to 9 months. • Part of exploring the environment is developing an understanding of the law of cause and effect, and of one’s own self as “agent” in the world—“When I do this, that happens,” etc. All the button-pushing feature sets of infant and toddler toys support this learning.
FEBRUARY 2014