Early Childhood

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Teachers February 19, 2023

13 Ways to Teach Students Appropriate Mealtime Manners

Are you looking for ways to teach students appropriate mealtime manners? If so, keep reading.

1. Train the learner in appropriate mealtime etiquette (e.g., speaking with an empty mouth, eating with mouth closed, chewing quietly, etc.).

2. Train the learner in selecting an appropriate amount of food, eating an appropriate amount of food, taking properly sized bites, etc.

3. Train the learner in appropriate cleanup learning activities upon the conclusion of eating (e.g., disposing of trash, putting trays and tableware in appropriate places, washing hands, etc.).

4. Train the learner in the appropriate use of napkins (e.g., keep on lap, wipe mouth, clean up spills, etc.).

5. Train the learner in appropriate line behavior (e.g., waiting quietly, refraining from physical contact, moving with the line, etc.).

6. Make sure the learner sits properly while eating (e.g., sits near the table, sits upright, leans forward, etc.).

7. Train the learner in appropriate behavior when finishing a meal early (e.g., making conversation, remaining in their seat, excusing themselves, etc.).

8. Train the learner in appropriate ways to get seconds or additional food (e.g., asking for seconds, going through the cafeteria line a second time, purchasing seconds, etc.).

9. Take the learner away from eating with their peers if they cannot demonstrate appropriate mealtime behaviors.

10. Teach the learner appropriate ways to drink liquids (e.g., opening milk cartons and juice containers, using a straw, pouring into a glass, drinking from a glass, etc.).

11. Teach the learner appropriate ways to respond to food they do not want (e.g., sample everything at least once, leave the food on the plate, offer extra portions to others, etc.).

12. Train the learner in appropriate ways to clean up spills (e.g., ask for assistance, use paper towels and napkins, etc.).

13. Train the learner inappropriate ways to clean clothing when accidents happen during mealtime (e.g., immediately go to the restroom, use paper towels and napkins, etc.).

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement August 17, 2022

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): Everything You Need to Know

This law ensures that internet sites, edtech applications, and other digitally available learning tools for children incorporate the protection of privacy for children aged 13 years or less. Their personal data have to be concealed and be unavailable for harvesting or monetary gain. The law implements rules on the use of data about and from children under 13 that are more stringent than the laws governing data about older people. It also gives the parents the ability to monitor and approve some of the information shared by their children. COPPA adds a distinguished layer of privacy protection that organizations that traffic in personally identifying information have to deal with. Some websites try to avoid adhering to COPPA by completely banning young users. Other websites might not consider themselves to be appealing to children under the age of 13 and hence, not subject to COPPA’s rules. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may take a different approach based on a website’s content.

Business owners, who’re thinking about complying with COPPA, first need to figure out whether or not the law applies to them. If children under 13 aren’t a business’s primary audience, but its website still meets some of the criteria established by the FTC, the business needs to determine individual users’ age if it’s going to collect personalized data from them.

If a website is subject to COPPA’s regulations, it needs to do the following:

· Post a comprehensive and clear online privacy policy mentioning its information practices for personal information (PI) collected online from under-13-year-olds

· Make reasonable efforts to provide parents with direct notice of its practices concerning the collection, use, and/or disclosure of PI from children under 13, including notice to any material alteration to practices to which the parents have previously provided their consent

· Get verifiable parental consent, with limited exceptions, before any collection, use, and/or disclosure of personal information from children under 13

· Offer a reasonable means for parents to review the personal information collected from their children, and for them to refuse to allow its further use

· Establish and maintain reasonable processes to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of the personal information collected from children under 13, including by following reasonable steps to release and disclose such personal information only to parties able to maintain its security and confidentiality

· Retain personal information collected online from under-13-year-olds for only as long as it’s required to fulfill the objective for which it was collected and delete the data using reasonable measures to safeguard against its unauthorized use or access

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement June 13, 2022

Early Head Start: Everything You Need to Know

An Early Head Start explains the concept of a nationally-funded initiative for the provision of certain services to pregnant women and low socioeconomic group families who have young children. The aim of this initiative is to provide an enabling environment for these infants or toddlers to thrive while boosting the economic status of their parents/families.

Early Head Start programs offer services similar to the preschool Head Start Programs, but they’re tailored for the unique needs of toddlers and infants. These programs promote the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development of toddlers and infants through developmentally enriching and safe caregiving. These programs support parents, including mothers and fathers, in their role as primary teachers and caregivers of their children. These help families fulfill their personal goals and achieve self-sufficiency across a wide range of domains, such as financial security, continued education, and housing stability.

Early Head Start programs appear with different options to ensure that families can live in a consistent, supportive setting that promotes strong relationships and offers the same full range of developmentally appropriate services and care. These options include:

Center-based services: Child development services and education are offered primarily in classroom settings that are located in an Early Head Start school, center, or child care center. Staff members also visit the home of each enrolled child and family at least twice per year. A program that’s designed to fulfill the needs of young parents enrolled in school settings may have its center-based program schedule during the school year aligned with its public school and offer regular home-based services during the summer break. A program’s facilities meet local, tribal, or state licensing requirements, even if the licensing entity exempts it. When local, tribal, or state requirements differ from the Head Start requirements, the most rigid provision takes precedence.

Home-based services: The entire range of Early Head Start services are offered through weekly home visits to every enrolled child and family. The home visitor offers child-focused visits that boost the parents’ ability to support their kid’s development. About twice per month, the program provides parents and children with opportunities to come together as a group for discussion, learning, and social activity.

Family child care services: Child development services and education are provided to children primarily in a family-like setting or private home. The local, tribal, or state entity grants family child care providers the licenses to offer services in a family-like setting or home. When local, tribal, or state requirements differ from the Head Start requirements, the strictest provision gets priority.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement February 9, 2022

How to Teach Children Letter Recognition

This stands for the ability to recognize and pronounce a letter that has been handpicked from a group of letters. Letter recognition or alphabet recognition is the most fundamental part of letter knowledge. Just like other fundamental training like potty training, kids need to learn letter recognition. Children must have this skill to start learning how to read easily. Additionally, children who can name the letters conveniently tend to be more interested to learn about words and their pronunciation. Sometimes, children can get clues on how a letter should sound by correctly recognizing its name.

Before parents start teaching their kid’s letter recognition, there’re some other essential skills that need to be taught. These include teaching visual discrimination. It helps a kid learn to recognize differences among shapes and lines. They should also be encouraged to practice visual discrimination by sorting letters depending on curved lines versus straight ones.

When it comes to teaching letter recognition, parents don’t necessarily need to follow alphabetical order. Instead, they should begin with the letters in the child’s name. The letters in a kid’s name have more meaning to them and give more opportunities to practice recognizing them in various manners.

Here’re some methods that can be used to teach letter recognition.

·Letter formation

·Clear instruction in letter naming

·Sorting activities to help understand differences in letter shapes

·Exposure to letters in different text formats

·Fluency practice in identifying letters

·Accuracy and fluency assessments

Kids need to be aware of both uppercase and lowercase letters to become successful readers later on. In reading, lowercase letters remain more common. But for kids, it’s more convenient to learn uppercase letters first. As uppercase letters can be visually distinguished easily, they wouldn’t confuse them, which is a common occurrence with lowercase letters. In fact, when it comes to uppercase letters, the only ones kids can confuse are W and M. One effective way to handle this is to teach these two letters one by one. Once the kid masters both, there’re activities that can help them understand the differences between them more clearly.

In a preschool classroom, teachers should follow some strategies when figuring out letter recognition activities. For instance, the use of visuals like alphabet cards often proves to be useful. Also, ‘think aloud’ strategies, where teachers talk aloud to communicate something to the students and let them notice every letter, can help.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement January 10, 2022

Developmentally Appropriate Milestones for 8, 9, and 10-Year-Olds

8, 9, and 10-year-olds are developing strong connections with adults outside the home. Educators, coaches, and other trusted grown-ups have a tremendous influence as mentors and role models. 1-on-1 conversations with adults allow the kid to feel competent, capable and valued. They are often helpful and cheerful in the classroom but may become sullen if they feel ignored.

Free play often finds kids polarized by gender; boys tend to play with other boys while girls play with other girls, and the groups may avoid or antagonize 1 another. At this age, kids are embarrassed easily and may seek to conform to a group instead of risking standing out by voicing a differing opinion. In addition, kids become self-conscious about their talents and weaknesses and avoid activities like dancing or drawing if they do not feel as competent as their classmates.

This group demonstrates an increased attention span and can be thoughtful. In the classroom, “busy work” may meet with resistance. On the other hand, educators find that projects that encourage reasoning and appeal to the kid’s romantic nature are well received and often result in excellent educational outcomes. Interest-based activities are popular with the 8-year-old, and they can now embrace hobbies such as photography and weaving with increased success than in the younger years. Student clubs are very popular, fostering a sense of belonging and allowing kids to explore shared interests. Kids also rally behind group efforts such as bake sales and juice stands. Not only do these activities provide a shared objective, but they also mesh with the “middler’s” fascination with money!

At 8, 9, and 10, kids can spend long periods engaged in planning and building activities. Materials like as Lego, K’nex, and Erector sets can fascinate the 8- year-old for hours. They also enjoy using tools to take apart real electronics and telephones. Board games will continue to be popular, and the games of the early elementary years are slowly replaced with more complex games. The 8-10-year-old appreciates having a system and space to save Lego constructions and half-finished boards games and jigsaw puzzles to return to later.

Outdoors, they thrive when given a choice to join in group games or sports or just “hang out.” Kids are growing rapidly during this year and often seem restless and “wiggly.” In addition to outside time, they enjoy frequent opportunities to move throughout the day. Possibilities include active games, such as “Simon Says” during transition times; opportunities to walk around, stand, sit, or stretch out on a soft rug in the indoor environment; and even materials that can allow limited gross motor play in the classroom, such as a hopscotch mat or Nerf basketball hoop.

Responding to 8-, 9-, and 10-Year-Olds

Take time to talk with kids about their thoughts, ideas, and interests.

Offer various choices and select open-ended activities that do not lead kids to judge their efforts as “good” or “bad” compared to others.

Use stories and role-play to encourage kids to care for 1 another and “do the right thing.”

Offer materials and guidance to encourage kids to explore new interests. Possibilities include kids’ animation software, microscopes, musical instruments, and materials for making jewelry. Consider offering clubs to allow kids with similar interests to work together.

Invite guests to share their topics of interest with the kids. Visitors such as park rangers, athletes, musicians, and artists can spark new interests, provide hands-on experiences to support learning, and offer meaningful interactions with adults.

Provide a wide variety of appealing, age-appropriate materials for construction, as well as puzzles.

8-year-olds are likely to be offended by materials designed for younger kids, such as Duplos or beginning reader books. Avoid materials that will lead kids to believe that they are too old for the provided activities.

Do not assign writing projects in afterschool and out-of-school environments, but encourage kids to explore the purposes that writing can serve. They may enjoy scripting a play, writing and illustrating books for younger kids, creating secret codes, or writing letters to pen pals.

Value kids as competent learners and offer materials in response to their interests. An enthusiastically motivated group of middlers can accomplish almost anything.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Education Leadership, Parental Involvement, PreK-12, Teachers December 9, 2021

19 Ways to Help Kids Develop a Habit of Finishing What They Start

Are you looking for ways to help kids develop a habit of finishing what they start? If so, keep reading.

1. Give the learner established time limits before a learning experience begins.

2. Support the learner in performing their duties. As the learner shows success in performing duties, slowly decrease assistance and require the learner to independently assume more responsibility.

3. Be clear when giving instructions to transition from one learning experience to the next.

4. Draft an agreement with the learner stipulating what behavior is required (e.g., putting learning materials away and getting ready for another learning experience) and which reinforcement will be implemented when the agreement has been met.

5. Select a peer to model finishing a learning experience and putting learning materials away for the learner.

6. Give the learner more than enough time to finish a learning experience. As the learner shows success, decrease the amount of time given to finish a learning experience.

7. Establish time limits so that the learner knows how long they have to work and when they must be finished.

8. Give sufficient transition time for the learner to finish a learning experience and get ready for the next learning experience.

9. Utilize a timer to help the learner know when it is time to change to a new learning experience.

10. Teach time-management skills. Get the learner to make a daily plan and follow it. Urge the learner to avoid becoming distracted by activities, impulses, and moods.

11. Talk about the learner’s duties at the beginning of each class period so they know what is expected.

12. Restrict the learner’s use of those things they have been irresponsible in putting away, returning, etc.

13. Show the learner when they do not put things away, what they are doing wrong, what they are supposed to be doing, and why.

14. Make sure that duties given to the learner are appropriate for their level of development and capacity and ability.

15. Use a signal method (e.g., turning the lights off and on) to warn that the end of a learning experience is near, and it is time to finish and put learning materials away.

16. Be firm, fair, and consistent, expecting the learner to change from one learning experience to another (e.g., do not let the learner change learning activities without putting learning materials away one time and not the next).

17. Give an incentive statement along with an instruction (e.g., “You may listen to your CD player after you finish your task and put away all learning materials. ”).

18. Assess the appropriateness of the task to ascertain (a) if the task is too easy, (b) if the task is too complicated, and (c) if the duration of time scheduled to finish the task is sufficient.

19. Consider using assistive technology designed to help students to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder concentrate. Click here to view list of assistive technology apps that we recommend.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement, Reading Education July 15, 2021

How to Help Children Learn to Read Well

There is no such thing as “starting too early” when teaching reading to children. It has been said that learning how to read stars even before a child can utter their first words. There is so much that can be done at home to help children learn to read well.

Teachers can do the formal teaching in schools, but at home, parents and caregivers can help by creating an environment that is conducive to reading, where a child can develop his or her love of reading. This is important because reading as a subject is challenging for both the teacher to teach and for students to learn. It’s not uncommon for students to have a negative perception of reading. Part of this resistance because children do not develop an interest in reading early on.

Below are some tips on how to help boost a child’s reading skills.

1. Read to infants and young children –reading to infants helps them build reading and communication skills. Even if the words don’t make sense to the child when adults read to them at that age, they will likely develop positive feelings towards the experience of reading and communicating.

2. Daily reading habit – set aside at least thirty (30) minutes of one-on-one reading time with your child. Change your voice, get into character and ask the child what he or she thought about the story! Not only will this be a good bonding experience, but it will also encourage the child to form that habit of reading every day. Invite other family members to read to the child and with the child. In this way, other family members can also enjoy the benefit of having a learning and bonding activity with the child.

3. Field trips – take reading outside of the four walls of your child’s room. Schedule a trip to the library or the local bookstore. Let your child pick the books that they want to read. This will open their eyes to the different types of books and explore the different genres. Let this experience pique their curiosity about the books that they may not have at home.

4. Reach out to volunteers and specialists – when it comes to reading concerns, it is always best to identify possible delays and to have your child receive the proper intervention as soon as possible. Do some research about the age-appropriate reading milestones, and if you have any concerns or questions about your child’s reading level, consult a specialist and do not rely on what you find on the internet.

5. Engage in conversation – ask your child about their favorite part of the story they read and what they did not like about it, ask them how their day went and who they hung out with. Reading is just one of the components of communication that children need to master. Engaging in conversation with your child will help them develop and become comfortable with communicating coherently.

Final Thoughts

Reading is such an essential skill for everyone to have. Many articles and stories are constantly shared among parents and reading specialists that emphasize ways to help children become good readers, especially during their younger years. It takes the effort of professionals and people at home to help boost a child’s reading skills.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement, Parenting, Reading & Literacy, Reading Education June 11, 2021

Using Close Reading to Improve Your Kids’ Reading Comprehension Skills

Close reading is a teaching strategy where content is read several times to find more profound meaning. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the content, beyond recall questions. Educators must carefully select content for close reading, looking for rich vocabulary, complex ideas, and thought-provoking messages. Close reading can be introduced in kindergarten and continue to be used throughout older grades.

Introducing Close Reading

In kindergarten, close reading is typically introduced via teacher read alouds. The content chosen has to be complicated enough that it lends itself to being reread over several days, with a specific purpose set for each reading. For beginning readers, having the text read aloud by the teacher is an efficient way to begin incorporating close reading into their literacy curriculum.

The teacher plans the purpose for each close reading and whether the entire text or portions of the text should be read aloud. On the first day, the teacher may select to read the text in its entirety and for learners to listen for enjoyment. This first read may consist of straightforward reading strategies such as having learners tap into their prior knowledge about the subject, discussing the main events in the story, and sharing their opinions of the content.

During the initial read or the second read, the teacher may select “text-dependent questions,” which are carefully crafted questions that require learners to utilize evidence from the book to explain their responses. For instance, questions may be posed about the text’s central ideas or the problem and resolution.

The next day, the same book, or parts of the book, is read aloud again. Learners are cued to listen for a specific purpose. This process is repeated over several days.

In older grades, where learners have become proficient readers, close reading can still be accomplished through read alouds and guided reading and independent reading. Educators need to select texts at learners’ teaching level to access the content and explore their deeper meaning.

Defining the Purpose

Educators need to decide a clear purpose for each close reading and share it with learners. There are many areas educators can select to focus on as they facilitate a more in-depth examination of texts. To support language development, educators may focus on taking a closer look at challenging vocabulary. Learners can be cued to listen for words they identify as “tricky” in a specific passage, sharing their findings afterward. Educators can give learners specific words they want learners to listen for and ponder their meaning in the context of the text.

Contingent on learners’ age and ability level, determining the meaning of foreign vocabulary may occur through discussions with the whole group or with a peer. More proficient readers can be allowed to search for definitions on a computer device and share their findings. They may also use their copy of the text to utilize context clues, like rereading the sentences around the unknown word, to guess its meaning.

Close reading can be used with comprehension strategies. It is a great teaching strategy for going beyond simple recall questions. For example, learners may be cued to listen to the author’s purpose. They may be asked to explain the story from the perspective of a specific character. Close reading can help learners understand inferencing as they listen for implied versus stated info in a text. Learners can be asked to read to discover the vital message we learn from the content or what it motivates us to do.

Learners can be cued to ponder what questions they still have after the text concludes or what wonderings they experienced throughout the story. Educators may select to have learners finish these activities orally, utilizing strategies such as “turn and talk” or “think, pair, share.” Alternatively, educators may ask learners to record their thinking in writing, utilizing blackline masters, or reading journals.

Close reading can be implemented in collaborative learning. Small groups of learners can be formed, and groups can reread the text with a specific purpose in mind. Learners may utilize content such as highlighters and sticky-notes to document their thinking. With developing readers, the teacher can read the text aloud, then have small groups of learners meet afterward, working towards a common goal. For collaborative learning to be efficient, each learner needs to participate, share their ideas, and ask their classmates questions. The goal is for each group member to walk away with a deeper understanding of the content.

Pros of Close Reading

Close reading requires that content be read more than once. This process provides chances for learners to explore the content in several ways, including to deepen their understanding and to work with others. Close reading does not overwhelm learners with multiple questions and instead allows them to slow their pace, visit a text more than once, and cue into specific purposes.

Close reading allows educators to share a wide variety of texts with learners from many genres. It also provides the benefit of encouraging learners to engage in purposeful conversation in whole group, small group, and partner settings. For learners who require extra support, close reading is advantageous because they can visit a story more than one time. Close reading facilitated in the form of read alouds also allows each learner to participate, even those who struggle to read the text independently. It is an efficient teaching tool for promoting the utilization of critical thinking.

What did we miss?

Matthew Lynch published in Child Development, Early Childhood, Parental Involvement, Parenting June 10, 2021

Teaching Children to Use Context Cues While Reading

When kids encounter an unfamiliar word in reading, they may utilize context cues, that is, info from pictures or sentences surrounding the unknown word. One of the most misunderstood topics in reading instruction involves how kids should be encouraged to rely on context cues in reading. This confusion stems from the popularity of theoretical reading models that do not reflect scientific evidence about how kids learn to read. An additional source of confusion is the failure to distinguish context cues in word identification.

Using context in word identification

When kids utilize context to aid word identification, they employ pictures or sentence context to read or decode an unknown word. For example, contemplate the following sentence from the Arthur series:

“D.W. put baby powder on her face to look pale.” (An image of D.W. accompanies the text with white powder on her face.)

Suppose a kid cannot read the last word of the sentence; they can look at the picture or ponder the meaning of the sentence, perhaps in connection with the first letter or 2 of the word (p- or pa-), to come up with the correct word, pale. Reliance on context to assist in word identification is common among poor readers, both normally-achieving beginners and older struggling readers. It is undesirable because the kid is guessing rather than attending to each of the word’s letters. Of course, educators certainly want kids to monitor meaning frequently as they are reading. Specific behaviors may demonstrate monitoring during the reading of passages.

Children who do not monitor their comprehension while reading should be encouraged to do so. However, any teaching strategy that discourages attention to the complete sequence of letters in a word will not be successful for an alphabetic language like English. Every letter counts, and learning new words is greatly facilitated by close attention to individual letters. The words pale, pole, and pile each differ in only one letter, but their meanings are entirely distinct!

Scientific evidence demonstrates that the development of skilled reading involves increasingly accurate and automatic word identification skills, not the utilization of “multiple cueing systems” to read words. Good readers do not need to rely on pictures or sentence context in word identification because they can read many words automatically, and they have the phonics skills to decode some unknown words quickly.

It is the poor readers who tend to be dependent on context to make up for low word recognition. Many struggling readers guess at words rather than to look carefully at them, a tendency that may be reinforced by encouragement to utilize context. Some teachers of struggling readers have seen the typical pattern in which a kid who is attempting to read a word (say, the word brown) gives the word only a passing glance and then offers a series of guesses based on the initial letter: “Black? Book? Box?” (The guesses are often accompanied by attention to the expression on the teacher’s face rather than to the print, as the kid waits for this expression to change to indicate a correct guess.)

Even when kids can utilize context to arrive at the correct word, reliance on context to compensate for inaccurate word reading creates a strain on comprehension. This type of compensation becomes increasingly problematic as kids are expected to read challenging texts with sophisticated vocabularies and grammatically complex sentences.

Teaching context along with comprehension

The use of context in reading comprehension indicates something quite distinct from the utilization of context in word identification. The use of context to assist comprehension should be consistently encouraged by educators, although some contexts are more helpful than others for this purpose. Use of context to decide word meanings also must be accompanied by a program of direct vocabulary instruction, as utilizing context will be insufficient for many kids to acquire the word meanings they need and is incredibly inefficient for the kids who need it most.

More considerations

Because youngsters with reading disabilities usually have poor phonological skills, they generally benefit from teaching approaches that provide explicit, systematic teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics. Nevertheless, suppose kids are taught systematic phonics in one part of the reading program but are encouraged to utilize context to predict when reading passages. In that case, they may not apply their phonics skills consistently. The phonics part of the reading program may be compromised.

Also, kids must be placed in reading instruction with books that match their word identification accuracy and phonics skills. If they are placed in reading content that is too difficult for their skill levels, they may be left with one or two options other than guessing at words.

Like normally-achieving readers, kids with reading disabilities benefit from encouragement to utilize context as an aid to comprehension. This type of context use can happen when kids are listening to text as well as when they are reading. Because youngsters with reading disabilities typically have listening comprehension that far outweighs their reading skills, oral comprehension activities are often good ways to challenge and develop their comprehension capabilities.

Matthew Lynch published in Child Development, Early Childhood, Parental Involvement June 3, 2021

A Brief Overview of Constructive Play

Constructive play, otherwise known as construction play, is about structuring, shaping, and altering things to formulate something different. It is one of the most important and exquisite learning opportunities for youngsters of all ages.

What then is constructive play in the early years?

Constructive play describes when children use material to develop or build something to achieve a goal. Jean Piaget, child development and learning expert, formalized the idea. Piaget believed that children learn by exploring the interaction between their ideas and the real world; thus, trying out those ideas is essential to the learning process.

Why is constructive play so significant?

Constructive play is essential because of its vast learning opportunities. For example, children can explore counting, symmetry, sizes, cause and effect, gravity, explore materials with interest and inquiry, and other exciting adventures.

Children will choose constructive play more than half the time if given various free play choices. So, why discourage it? Here are some tips on how to foster constructive play.

1. Getting the right resources

Provide your children with a wide range of resources that encourage open-mindedness and creativity. Yes, Legos and train tracks are good choices, but you should include other fun items like sand and tools, wooden building blocks, sticks and stones, cogs, wheels, etc.

2. Valuable by itself

Historically, people viewed constructive play as a bridge towards fantasy play, but that’s not correct. It is valuable on its own, irrespective of the child’s age or developmental stage. It comes very naturally to children since it lets children just be children.

3. Get down and play

Are you striving to get your children interested in constructive play? You should never force children into something they’re not ready to do. Indulge their interest and attention by modeling constructive play yourself. Let them watch you play, and watch them join in the fun.

4. Try it, everyplace!

Constructive play is fundamental to a child’s improvement, so it shouldn’t be constrained to your home. Children need to explore the connection between their ideas and the real world in all kinds of environments.

5. Assist with language

Constructive play is an excellent tool for language development in the early years. This occurs through the meaningful interactions you can have with your children. Ask open-ended questions to support their language development.

6. Mix it up

You must mix up your constructive play area often. As children build worlds and expand their horizons, they might bring in things from other spaces. Find out what else you can put in!

7. Try risky constructive play methods

Risky play helps children to learn about risks while encountering some essential emotions. It is a good idea to begin to introduce risk to children in constructive play.