Get Started Playing With Purpose

by | Mar 22, 2018 | Playing With Purpose

In January, I wrote a guest post for my colleague Jill of Honest OT in Denver, CO. I shared some quick tips to get you started Playing With Purpose. Today, I am sharing those tips plus a bonus Hanen strategy so you can engage in more purposeful play with your children.

Playing With Purpose does not have to be hard. It’s the smallest adjustments to your day-to-day life that can have a significant impact. Follow these suggestions to get started:
1. When you’re going about your daily routine, allow for time face-to-face with your child. This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate basic conversation skills and gives your child a clear view of your mouth which will encourage speech.
2. Try to provide activities for your child that mimic what you’re doing in the house. For example, put some of your child’s favorite books near the spot where you like to sit to read.
3. Reduce the number of toys your child has access to at any one time and think about where in your house the toys are located. This decreases clutter or mess for you to clean up and decreases over-stimulation for your kids. It will encourage your child to spend more time playing with toys and free up some time for you to do the things you love.

Five Tips to Get You Started Playing With Purpose TODAY:

  1. Allow for face-to-face time with your child.
  2. Provide activities for your child that mimic the activities you’re doing in the house.
  3. Reduce the number of toys your child has access to.
  4. Talk to your child all the time by narrating your day and activities.
  5. Use my favorite Hanen strategy called “Offer a Little Bit…Then Wait.”
This strategy is part of what is referred to as creating an opportunity for your child to lead. The desire to communicate needs to come from within. Try taking the focus off getting your child to talk. When you ask your child to say words or repeat after you, it does not help him/her learn language. It may have the opposite effect since it can take the joy out of communicating.

Instead of asking children to repeat, we can let them lead the communication and then follow their lead. But sometimes we need to encourage or create an opportunity for a child to lead. That is where this Hanen strategy comes into play. I like to use toys with many parts or keep my toys in clear, plastic bins when “offering a little bit and then waiting.” I can repeat this strategy over and over during a single play routine. And we all know that repetition provides multiple opportunities for our children to communicate and for us to reinforce their excellent communication.

Want to more support starting to PWP?

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Start Playing With Purpose

Learn how to purposefully and intentionally interact with your child during play and help them increase opportunities for speech and language development with our Playing with Purpose book!

Playing with Purpose Book

Learn how to purposefully and intentionally interact with your child during play and help them increase opportunities for speech and language development!

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