Watching and Playing Together

Materials You Need: A few interesting, safe playthings or materials from indoors or outdoors.

What You Can Do Together: At this age, your child probably is becoming more interested in being with other children. Your child may not be ready to play with others in complicated games, but he may enjoy playing side-by-side with another child, watching what that child does, and just being together. To encourage this, if possible, find another child of about the same age in the neighbourhood or perhaps in a park. If not possible, perhaps a brother or sister can be the playmate. 

Get your child settled with the other child, with a few playthings nearby (enough for both to use). You might give each child a few things and say something like, “Look! You can play with these. See, your friend is banging the spoon on the pan. What can you do?” The children may do many things, probably not together, but you may see that they are very aware and interested in each other. Help them enjoy relaxed playtime in whatever way they wish. Watch them for safety and perhaps provide a few more materials or show how something might be used.

What Your Child is Learning: This is called “parallel play”—when very young children begin to play near each other, but mostly each child is doing their own activity. They are learning by watching others, and sometimes copying what their friend is doing. This is the very start of cooperative play and friendship, which will be so important in later years.