Written by Janelle Vedder, SLP
All Play is okay. All play Is welcome.
But how do we join play in ways that support communication development?
Play is a state of mind as much as an activity that is voluntary, intrinsically motivated, flexible, and pleasurable (National Institute for Play, n.d.).
As clinicians, we join children in their play to foster connection, engagement, and stretch their strengths to build communication skills. We also support caregivers in joining in their children’s authentic play so they can continue the fun at home. And we encourage our adult clients to work on their communication goals within their authentic play too.
Everyone plays-even adults! It may look different at different ages and stages, and may use different materials and different interaction styles, but everyone plays.
There are many ways to talk about play. We can describe how independent or collaborative the play is (independent, associative, parallel, co-operative, competitive); We can describe how creative the play is (real-object imitative, pretend, dramatic, organizational); We can summarize an individual’s most comfortable play style (Creator, Explorer, Competitor, Organizer, Dreamer, Move. (National Institute of Play). We can also describe the type of play in each play interaction. Some researchers believe there to be 16 types of play (Play Scotland, N.d.), Each of these types of play brings with it different opportunities for building language and communication.
| Type of Play | Explanation | Examples | How to join in | |
| Symbolic Play |
Using an item to represent another item within play
|
Using a banana as a phone, turning pillows on the floor into a boat to cross the hallway river, using crayons to be the paw patrol pups | Join in and add language by talking about what the item is representing, and what it’s not “that’s not a banana, it’s a phone!” suggesting other items to add on to the symbolism “we better get a bucket to bail out the water!” | |
| Rough & Tumble Play | Experimenting with physical strength, flexibility, and interactions with others with no end goal or structured rules | Wrestling, tickling, pillow fights | Join in and add language by being a sportscaster, narrating the events, commenting with catchphrases, adding catchphrases as you play | |
| Role Play | Practicing real life roles and jobs | Sweeping, brushing hair, driving a car | Join in and add language by labeling what’s happening “I’m sweeping” “we’re driving in the car!” “Brushing hair like Grandma!” | |
| Socio-dramatic Play | Acting out real or potentially real experiences, practicing roles and responsibilities with others | Playing house, playing restaurant, playing farm animals, sweeping |
Join in and add language by being a character in the play, making suggestions, following directions, finding things needed to extend the play |
|
| Social Play | Rule-structured play with others where everyone is involved in following the rules | Board games, card games, crafting together, organizing together | Join in and add language by, negotiating rules, narrating the steps, asking what you should do next | |
| Creative Play | Making and changing things through play, often with a surprise or new twist | Self-expression through art, making things, changing things, process art , open-ended video games, listening to altered versions of video clips | Join in and add language by describing colours, textures, scents, sizes, imitating with your own tools in your own way | |
| Communication Play |
Using words, gestures, sounds
|
Charades, jokes, singing, debating, just chatting, talking into the fan, repeating sounds, repeating portions of video clips | Join in and add language by imitating and inviting more turns, joining in the laughter | |
| Dramatic Play | Performance for others | Acting out a TV show, setting up a concert, showing off skills | Join in and add language by cheering, giving a summary or review, showing off your own “skill” | |
| Deep Play/Risky Play | Exploring potentially dangerous experiences and experimenting with possible fears | Climbing very high, lighting fire with matches, parkour, skateboarding | Join in and add language by narrating, encouraging problem- solving (“what would happen if you…”) commenting (that’s high! You’re brave!), sharing what you would do “that’s too high for me” “I thin I can go higher!” | |
| Exploratory Play – a.k.a. Cause and Effect Play | Experimenting with and observing how things change | Mouthing objects, stacking towers, smashing playdough, watching items fall, wiggling strings, opening and closing blinds | Join in and language by, describing sounds (that sounds like rain, that’s musical), textures (that’s rough, that’s sticky), describing scents, asking open-ended questions “What’s gonna happen? “ , imitating actions with your own materials and describing what you notice | |
| Fantasy Play/Imaginative Play | Creating and testing scenarios that are unlikely to occur, pretending the rules of the physical world don’t apply | Playing dragons, pretending to be tiny, making a cow fly, having a shark eat berries | Join in and add language by going along with the imagination, adding on to the fantasy, suggesting more unrealistic things, acting out what was suggested | |
| Locomotor/Gross Motor Play | Movement for movement’s sake | Tag, tree climbing, hide and seek, swinging, yoga | Join and add language by narrating what’s happening, describing the movement patterns, offering changes to the play (higher?), singing songs about the movements, mirroring their movements and describing the physical sensations | |
| Mastery Play | Controlling and changing physical environments | Digging holes, blocking parts of a stream, building with blocks/lego , puzzles | Join in and add language by guessing what’s going to happen, comparing before and after, describing the end result | |
| Object Play | Movements and manipulation of objects | Spinning objects, holding objects up to light, walking around objects arranged in a specific way, organizing and lining up objects, setting up a dollhouse scene, rearranging furniture | Join in and add language by wondering aloud what looks nice about the play, suggesting additions to the pattern | |
| Recapitulative Play | Exploring ancestry and family history | Rituals, stories, rhymes, finger plays | Join in and add language by teaching your child the songs and stories of your and your parents and grandparent’s childhood and home languages, reading stories of your ancestry together |
Bring on the play
What kind of play do you or your child enjoy? What comes most naturally to you? What sort of play feels like work for you but joy for someone you love? What style of play is new for you? How can you connect and communicate through play today?
References:
National Institute of Play (n,d) https://nifplay.org/science/foundations
Play Scotaland (n.d.) Hughes 16 types of play https://www.playscotland.org/resources/play-types-poster/