Module 7: Play
Page Outcomes[edit | edit source]
When you have finished this workshop, you should be able to:
Understand and explain to other caregivers the importance of play for a child’s development.
- Help your child with cerebral palsy to enjoy times of play that promotes her communication, movements, social and emotional skills, and learning.
Play[edit | edit source]
Play is any activity that a child CHOOSES to do, and has FUN whilst doing. Through play, a child uses her SENSES to explore and learn.
Senses:
- Seeing
- Hearing
- Touching / Feeling
- Smelling
- Tasting
Something else that works very closely with our senses, and is involved in play, is movement.
Examples of play:
- Enjoying the sound of a rattle/music (hearing)
- Looking at something that is shiny or colourful or pretty, or mom’s face (seeing)
- A baby kicking her legs and laughing (movement)
- Handling different objects – soft, hard, prickly etc (touching / feeling)
- Playing “peek-a-boo” (seeing)
- Splashing in water (feeling and movement)
- Hide and seek (hiding an object under a lid or box and getting the child to try and lift the box to find the object, or hiding yourself from them and seeing if they can move or look for you (seeing)
- Pretending to make food out of mud (touching or feeling)
- Swimming or spinning around in circles (movement)
- Singing & clapping games (sight, movement, hearing)
- Running around (movement)
- Playing soccer or other sports (sight, movement, feeling)
