UNIT 4

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE CARE AND ACTIVITIES FOR HOLISTIC

DEVELOPMENT

Guiding Principles of Program Planning:

Keeping the vision of holistic and integrated development of the child, with focus on care and
early learning at each sub-stage of the developmental continuum and the interrelatedness of the
domains of development there is a need to have separate section for Birth to three years and 3-6
years as far as the specifics are being laid out.

In the life cycle approach to care and learning, in the first three years of life focus is on a
nurturing stimulating and protective environment with appropriate child care.

Supporting child development in primary care involves strengthening resilience and protective
factors and decreasing the number, duration and severity of risk factors.

Children between three to six years need care, protection as well as planned play based
programme for all round development with more of free play, but some guided, adult-child, child
to child interaction and opportunities for holistic development of all domains of development.

As children move towards their pre-primary years focus would be on developing their school
readiness skills and concepts.

The National ECCE Policy lays down the features of the sub stages as follows:

• Birth to three years – survival, safety, protective environment, health care, nutrition
including infant and young child feeding practices for the first six months, Birth to three
years – survival, safety, protective environment, health care, nutrition including infant and
young child feeding practices for the first six months, attachment to an adult, opportunity
for psycho-social stimulation and early interaction in safe, nurturing and stimulating
environments within the home and appropriate child care centres.
• Three to six years- protection from hazards, health care nutrition, attachment to an adult,
developmentally appropriate play-based preschool education with a structured and planned
school readiness component for 5- to 6-year-olds.

What is play? What are its types?

 Play could be simple or complex. Touching, feeling, exploring, making, breaking are all
activities that enrich the senses and this helps new synapses develop in the brain.

Free play or play that involves choices, logic and thinking helps enhance the frontal lobe.
The hand and the brain need each other: Neurologically, "a hand is always in search of a
brain and a brain is in search of a hand," as Wilson likes to say. Use of the hands to
manipulate three-dimensional objects is an essential part of brain development.
Imaginative play, role-play are part of symbolic play.

Symbolic play is when a child can use a symbol or object to represent another item, for
example, he uses a piece of block to be a telephone etc. When a child is able to experience
symbolic play he will definitely be able to excel in reading and writing activities as reading
is nothing but representing a picture or word in a symbol (all letters and words are
symbols).

Kids should enjoy the play, as positive emotions enhance memory and no play should be stressful
or too competitive as our bodies release harmful chemicals under stress, these chemicals are not
good for the brain. Play that is self-initiated, involving trial and error, problem solving, has cause
and effect is good for developing neural pathways. Play helps develop language skills as the more
sensorial experiences the child has the more the child will want to talk about it and hence
language development will be enhanced". Memory increases by revisiting information frequently,
so play often and even the same games every day as long as children like to play it and their
interest lasts in it. Cross lateral movements keep both sides of the brain working - so the more
creeping, crawling, marching play activities your child does the better for his brain - how? Cross
lateral movements are arm and leg movements that cross over from one side of the body to the
other. Since left side of the brain controls right side of the body and vice versa, the two sides are
forced to communicate when legs and arms cross over.

Chapter 1
 Importance of Play in Development
“The most important stage of life is not the university studies but the first period, from birth to
age of six” – Maria Montessori

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free
expression of what is in a child’s soul.” - Friedrich Froebel

“Play Is the Work of the Child” - Maria Montessori

Why children should play

The Early childhood Care and Education Programme recognize that children learn best through
play and learning by doing. Children of this age group are naturally curious to explore their
immediate world using their senses. Anyone who has spent time observing young children will
have noticed that they are in constant interaction with their environment, they want to touch
everything they see. Children learn by doing, by experiencing and actively participating in the
learning process. Thus, the ECCE curriculum adopts a play and activity based approach in which
the learning processes are based on the needs, interests, abilities and social context of the children
for whom it is planned.

The methodology in this approach is largely based on creating a stimulating learning environment
for the child through planned activities/tasks which are joyful, and involve active thinking
/learning by the child. Children are visualised as active being who construct their own knowledge
and the process of teaching-learning is one of co-construction of knowledge, with adults as
facilitators.

1.3 What is play?

Play for a child is natural, spontaneous, enjoyable, rewarding and it is self-initiated. While
children do not engage in play for its learning outcomes, yet it has been shown that play prompts
growth and development.

In recent times play has been considered as a behavioural disposition that occurs in describable
and reproducible contexts and is manifested in a variety of observable behaviours.
(Fein&Vandenberg, 1983).

There are majorly four types of play such as

Functional Play: Children use their senses and muscles to explore and experiment with materials
and learn how things go together. It satisfies children’s need to be active and to explore.

Constructive Play: Children learn use of different materials, put things together based on a plan,
develop and use strategies of reaching their goal.
 Dramatic or Pretend Play: Children take on a role, pretend to be someone else and use real or
pretend objects to play out a role. Children re-enact they have experienced or watched earlier, use
worlds and gestures and show the role they are playing.

Games with Rules: Children gradually learn to play with others, control their behaviour and
conform to a structure of present rules. However the focus is more on enjoyment rather than
winning or losing and cooperative and collaborative games in which children play with each other
than against each other.

What is an activity?

A good activity is a

• Part of a well-planned series of experiences identified by the teachers for the child for a
particular learning area/areas and not an isolated learning experience.
• Where child is actively engaged physically and mentally.
• Challenging enough for the child so as to help her/him practice and apply here/his skill and
knowledge in a variety of ways, across many situations.
• Enables children to learn in a joyful and interesting way.

What is Curriculum in early childhood?

Keeping the above perspectives in mind the curriculum in early childhood is defined as an
organized framework that includes three components (Bredekamp & Rosegrant, 1992, p.10):

• Context: This component is the setting, the environment in which stimulation and learning
takes place.
• Content: This component is the subject matter of the curriculum, the goals and objectives
for children’s learning.
• Processes: This component is the pedagogy of learning, how ECCE teachers/caregivers
interact with children, creates opportunities for learning and the ways in which children
achieve the goals and objectives of the curriculum.

Each of these components, to be implemented well, requires knowledge of how children develop
and learn at each stage of development; their individual strengths, interests, and needs; and the
social and cultural contexts in which they live (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997, p.9).
Early childhood Care and Education is

• A balanced play and activity based program which provides a stimulating environment
for the language, intellectual, social emotional and physical development of the child.
• A child centred program catering to individual children’s learning and emotional needs
through individual, small and large group activities and one to one communication.
• Lays the foundation for the development of reading, writing and number work.
• A school readiness programme which ‘readies’ children for learning to read, write and
do arithmetic later.
• A programme which indirectly promotes self-control and thereby inner discipline in
children through interactions.

What should be the care practices and resources in ECCE?

Care practices and resources can be improved through actions of different sectors, including
health, early child development, community development, women’s income generation, water and
sanitation, and the environment. Caring practices and resources very tremendously by culture, and
even by groups and communities within cultures. There are differences in how each culture
attempts to meet the needs of their young ones. Understanding care practices and resources for
care would help adults identify the practices and resources that are important, relevant and
essential for their ecological setting.

The nurturing and interacting style of the primary caregivers at home, and in out-of-home
programmes at the ECCE centres, have strongest influences on children’s motivation and learning.
Certain principles and processes that guide effective care and stimulation practices at home as
well at the ECCE centre is delineated below:
Care, Stimulation and Interaction at Home

• Traditional customs often provide warmth and support for young children. Infant
massage, touching, holding, talking to the child while breastfeeding and other feeding
times must be practiced to create bonding and attachment between mother and child.
• Parents and family members may understand the child rearing approach taken in the
child care centre and extend the care and stimulation practices at home.
• Provide a variety in interactions in which make time for children to play together
without much caregiver input (free play time). Time alone if wanted, and time with
caregivers in regular activities.
• Prevent and protect children from child abuse and violence as children who are exposed
to aggression and who have been victimized are likely to repeat these roles later in life.
• Hove men take the responsibility towards health and nutrition of women and children.
• Be alert to signs of listlessness, low activity level or delayed achievement of
developmental milestones, find out the reason and take actions accordingly.
• Storytelling plays a significant role in facilitating language development in the early
years. The tradition of narrating local stories and folktales to children should be
encouraged at homes.
• Both mothers and fathers work as a team to facilitate their children’s language
development (which could include two more languages).
 Chapter 2

Care and practices for birth to six months

The new born should be welcomed by all the people around with soothing sounds and gestures as
the baby can hear and see all around. His nutritional, emotional and physical care should cover
following aspects:

Nutritional Care

Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and
development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important
implications for the health of mothers. Review of evidence has shown that, on a population basis,
exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the optimal way of feeding infants. Thereafter infants
should receive complementary foods with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond.

To enable mothers to establish and sustain exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, WHO and
UNICEF recommend:

• Initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of life

• Exclusive breastfeeding – that is the infant only receives breast milk without any additional
food or drink, not even water
• Breastfeeding on demand – that is as often as the child wants, day and night
• No use of bottles, teats, or pacifiers

Importance of Breast Milk for infants

1. Breast milk is the natural first food for babies, it provides all the energy and nutrients
that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or
more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one-
third during the second year of life.
2. Breast milk promotes sensory and cognitive development and protects the infant against
infectious and chronic diseases.
3. Exclusive breastfeeding reduces infant mortality due to common childhood illnesses
such as diarrhoea or pneumonia and helps for a quicker recovery during illness.

How is breastfeeding beneficial for the mothers?

1. Breastfeeding contributes to the health and well-being of mothers; it helps to space
children, reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer, increases family and
national resources, is a secure way of feeding and is safe for the environment.
 2. While breastfeeding is a natural act, it is also a learned behaviour. An extensive body of
research has demonstrated that mothers and other caregivers require active support for
establishing and sustaining appropriate breastfeeding practices.

Emotional Care Important milestones in the age of 0 - 6 months

• Only parent - Until about six weeks, the baby responds almost solely to the voice, smell and
facial expressions of the parents.

• Smile - The first social smile. The baby responds to each smiling face, not only the parents, but
even unknown people.
• Contact - Arms are stretched out to be picked up; different ways of crying emerge to express
different emotions and needs. The baby is in touch with several people.
• Curiosity - At 3-4 months, a child recognizes more and more and it is becoming more curious
about new environment and people.
• Separation anxiety phase - At around 5-6 months, a baby can clearly express what it does
or does not like. It can cling when the parent or caregiver makes preparations to leave. This
narrow-mindedness phase often lasts several months. The starts differ for each child; often
later in boys than in girls, around 8-9 months.
• Maximum of 3 staff members - Baby groups usually work with up to 3 permanent employees
per week, so that children get to know a limited number of faces in their first year of life. We
meet each child in a positive manner. That means talking softly, keeping facial expressions
friendly, talking at eye level, explaining all actions. Wear shoes with soft soles (due to loud
noise on the ground). We always approach a child from the front, so it will not be deterred.
• Active attitude - We feed children on our lap as much as possible. The child gets personal
attention, is saturated and can then discover for themselves. In addition, a child has a more
active role when being fed on one’s lap and can better assimilate the area.
• Consciously keeping some distance - Children do not need adults in every step of their
development and thus pedagogical staff members sometimes consciously keep some distance.
They encourage the child from a safe distance. It increases self-confidence. The 'do it yourself'
is also good for cognitive and sensory development and personality development. Children -
however small - get a kick out of self-learning and discovery.

Physical Care
Starting from birth, your healthcare provider should measure your baby’s weight, length and head
size on a regular basis.
These measurements are important for determining your baby’s growth. Your healthcare provider
will use a chart to track your baby’s growth pattern.
Physical Milestones
First month:
• weight may drop after birth but will be regained
• hand, arm, leg, and rooting movements are all reflex motions
• head flops if not supported
• focuses eyes at 18 to 45 cm
• stares at high contrast patterns and objects but does not reach
• recognizes mother’s voice
• startles at noise
Second month:
• muscles relax and twitch less
• lifts head about 45 degrees while lying on tummy
• hands start to unfold
• may reach and grasp an object for a short time
Third month:
• stretches out arms and legs
• rolls over from back to side
• holds head up to search for sounds and movement
• discovers feet and hands
• responds to detailed, high contrast objects
• cuts first tooth (third to sixth month or later)
Fourth month:
• stands up and holds weight with help
• rolls from front to side
• lifts head about 90 degrees
• sits with arms propped
• reaches for objects • holds hands together
Fifth month:
• rolls over from front to back
• grabs toes and feet
• wiggles forward on floor
• reaches with a good aim
• transfers objects from hand to hand
Sixth month:
• holds head steady
• sits with back straight when propped
• grasps small objects and studies them
• rolls in both directions
• understands that objects may be hiding behind one another
Activities
Babies love to play - there's so much you can do to foster your baby's physical growth and
development through play and activity:
• Always supervise your baby to prevent falling.
• Hold the things you want your baby to see close to her eyes so she can focus clearly.
• Have lots of supervised tummy time so your baby can kick and move. Offer clean rattles and
toys that your baby can feel and mouth.
• Provide a variety of noisemaking toys and objects and place them within batting range.
• Play in front of a mirror with your baby.
• Create safe play spaces on the floor.
• Take lots of walks with your baby in the fresh air.
• Provide safe, clean, chewable toys.
• Everything will go in your baby’s mouth - make sure objects are big enough that they cannot be
swallowed.
• Extend bath time so your baby can kick and squeal while you supervise. Never leave your baby
alone in the bath.
• Baby proof your home so that everything harmful is out of the way.

Suggestive Developmentally Appropriate Activities during Birth- 6 months

Approximate Age Birth to 3 Months

What Children Do • • What Children need/what care Givers Provide

for
• Learn about the world •
through all their senses
Protection from physical danger
• Track people and objects • •
Adequated nutrition (through exclusive
with eyes
• •
breastfeeding is best)
• Respond to faces and
• Adequate health care (immunization, oral
bright colours rehydration therapy as required, hygiene)
• Reach, discover hands An adult with whom to form an attachment
and
 feet An adult who can understand and respond to their
• Lift head and turn toward signals
sound Things to look at, touch hear, smell, taste
• Cry, but are often soothed To be held, sung to and rocked
when held Opportunities for infant massage as it promotes
health benefits, and encourages bonding
• Begin to smile
• Begin to develop a sense
of
self

Approximate Age 4 to 6 Months

What Children Do What Children need/what care Givers Provide for

• Smile often • Opportunities to explore the world, play with a

• Prefer parents and older variety of objects
siblings • Appropriate language stimulation
• Repeat actions with • Focus on Health, nutrition and early psycho social
interesting results stimulation through free play and a lot of adult child
• Listen intently and respond interaction egs. (infant games, traditional songs
when spoken to &syllables, access to variety of play materials,
• Laugh, gurgle, imitate individualized adult attention and interaction
sounds opportunities to explore, early introduction to stories,
• Explore hands and feet infant books, drawings etc) in safe, spacious and
clean environment
• Put objects in mouth
• Sit when propped, roll • Play and interact with children frequently to
over, scoot, bounce stimulate their cognitive, language, social, and motor
development.
• Grasp objects without
using thumb • Exposure to music and rocking
• Calling child by name to develop self-identity
 Chapter 3

Care and activities for seven months to one year

Milestones
Baby is Babbling
Is baby starting to understand you? They may recognize the tone of your voice and are learning
how to better communicate their needs. Don’t be surprised if baby reaches for you to be picked
up, or shakes their head at you when they’re done feeding. These are baby’s newly learned
communication skills.

Those Fingers are Getting Strong

Baby has recently discovered how amazing their hands are! Expect a lot of pointing and clapping.
You may also notice their fine motor skills developing. This is great for picking up pieces of food,
but watch out for pulling hair!

Baby’s First Word

Has baby said “mama” or “dada” yet? If not, baby is probably getting close! Reading stories
together, describing your actions, and singing songs are all great ways to help develop language
skills. When baby is babbling, repeat the sounds they are saying and turn them into real words.
For example, if baby says “ba”, repeat it by saying “ball.”

Playtime = Fun Time

Playtime will become a lot more interactive during this stage, as baby is learning new gestures and
starts to understand that there is a “back-and-forth” in conversation.
Motor Games and Activities
• Put a toy or book inside an empty cardboard box. Wrap it with colorful paper or newspaper
comics.
Clap your hands when baby yanks it open then announce what is inside.
• Encourage movement by placing toys around baby where they must move to reach them
• Encourage baby pushups during Tummy Time by raising and lowering a rattle over baby’s
head
 •
Engage baby in activities like reading or playing with a ball while in sitting
• Gently push baby back and forth on a swing in the park, but make sure baby can sit up and
hold head steady with no problem
• When baby is holding a toy in each hand offer a third toy; watch as baby figures out how
to grasp the new toy without letting go of the other two
• Punch holes in lid of empty food container and fill with water to make a fun bath time toy
• Get an empty plastic bucket and have baby throw toys into it
• Use different household items , like squeeze toys or newspapers to make different noises
for baby
Sensory Games and Activities
• Use your hands to make shadow puppets for baby
• Gently touch baby on the feet and tummy to make them giggle
• Play with a jack in the box or windup toy with baby to show motion
• Use animal sounds when playing with or reading to baby; point out an image of an animal
then associate the sound that animal makes with the picture
• Walk with baby in a carrier or baby backpack
• Play with baby in many different positions
• Take baby on a walk in a stroller or jogger
• Use slow, rocking motions for calming and more vigorous motions for play time
• Give baby space to explore environment, while staying close to supervise
• Introduce new textures while baby is eating, sleeping, dressing, or playing outdoors, use a
variety of sponges, soaps, and lotions during bath time
• Provide plenty of skin-to-skin contact with a parent or caregiver
• Encourage baby to play on the floor with toys of various colors, sizes, and shapes
• Allow baby to grab and explore items within reach
Communication Games and Activities
• Draw a picture of baby’s face and then point out the different parts
• Play with a pretend phone; talk into phone as you would a regular call, then offer it to baby
to do the same
• Read short stories with baby
• Start using hand movements along with associated words to teach baby to communicate
with gestures
 •
• Describe your actions throughout the day as you dress, feed, and bathe baby. This gives
baby an opportunity to listen to the sounds and rhythms of speech
• Respond to baby’s sounds and encourage two-way communication
• Play music throughout the day – lively, upbeat music during playtime, and quiet melodic
music for naps and bedtime
• Read picture books together to help baby connect words and images
• Give baby frequent face time
Point out objects while you walk and talk with baby
Feeding Games and Activities
• Try introducing pureed foods to baby. Puree a small amount of whatever you are having
for dinner in a food processor, but be sure to avoid honey, cow’s milk, salt, and artificial
sweeteners
• Introduce new foods gradually and watch for baby’s response
• Do not force food or show stress over a baby’s dislike for certain foods
• Change the texture of food if baby refuses food
• Provide baby with a healthy diet – avoid artificial ingredients, sugars, and preservatives

10-12 Month Old Games Motor Games and Activities

• Get baby to stack toys such as blocks or rings and describe each toy as your baby picks it
up
• Lie down on the floor and have baby crawl over you
• Practice new gestures with baby like blowing kisses, clapping hands, or giving a high five
• Use a toy to encourage baby to crawl when they are in a tummy time position
• Roll a soft ball across the floor and encourage baby to crawl after it
• Allow baby to play with toys they can push or pull across the floor
• Read with baby while they lie on their tummy
• Play with stackable blocks
• Let baby play with large objects like tunnels, pillows, or cushions while supervised
• If baby is already walking, let them try riding toys that they can sit on and scoot across the
floor
• Provide push toys that allow baby to practice walking with some support
• Encourage baby to dance and sway to music
• Provide opportunities for baby to experience slow, rocking movements
Sensory Games and Activities
 •
• Play peek-a-boo with baby
• Have baby look at their reflection in the mirror and point out each body part •
Encourage baby to crawl over, under, and through various objects in your home
• Introduce baby to new textures through food, toys, clothes, sponges, etc.
• Provide plenty of skin-to-skin contact with caregivers
• Keep baby away from areas where people are smoking or using harsh chemicals
Communication Games and Activities
• Practice waving bye-bye when a guest leaves your home
• Read daily from big, colorful books and let baby turn the pages
• Encourage baby to wave hello when meeting new people
• Ask baby to point to different body parts when you name them
• Ask baby questions and encourage response with words, baby sounds, cooing, or babbling.
Record the conversation and play it back for baby to hear
Direct baby’s attention to interesting objects by helping them point their finger
• Name textures, shapes, and sizes to help baby attach words to tactile experiences
• Describe your actions throughout the day as you dress, feed, and bathe baby
• Respond to baby’s sounds to encourage two-way communication
Feeding Games and Activities
• Offer baby an assortment of food to try
• Keep track of where baby is in their feeding development, well meaning friends and family
may give baby food inappropriate for their age
 •
Approximate Age 7 to 12 Months

What Children Do What Children need/what care Givers Provide for

• Remember simple events All of the above, plus

• Identify themselves, body
• Respond to the child’s nutritional requirements by
parts, familiar voices
providing appropriate quantity and quality of food.
• Understand own name,
• Introduction of supplementary foods
other common words
• A safe environment to explore
• Say first meaningful
• Conducting variety of activities with children and
words
giving space to explore according to one’s innate
• Explore, bang, shake
objects interests.
• Find hidden objects, put • Developing self-confidence through proving
objects in containers enough opportunities to explore, touch, taste, smell
and respond to the environment.
• Sit alone
• Creep, pull themselves up • Cleaning children and washing their hands at
to stand walk regular intervals to promote good hygiene and
inculcate healthy practices.
• May seen shy or upset
with strangers. • Regular and constant positive interaction with
children to promote development of language,
imagination, manipulation, concepts with activities
like clapping peeka -boo, push and pull toys, rolling
hands, reading picture books, singing lullabies and
rhymes etc….
• Opportunities to hear stories, be read to
• Establishing bonding and warm relationship with
children and building trust by giving lots of love,
care and affection and praising child’s achievements
 •

Chapter 4
Care and activities for one year to three years

Approximate Age 1to 2 Years

What Children Do What Children need/what care Givers Provide for

• Imitate adult actions In addition to the above:

• Speak and understand
• Health care must also include deworming if required.
words and ideas
• Support in acquiring new motor, language, thinking
• Enjoy stories skills.
experimenting with objectts
• A chance to develop some independence.
• Walk steadily, climb
• Help in learning how to control their own behaviour
stairs, run
• Opportunities to begin to learn to care for themselves.
• Assert independence,
• Opportunities for play and exploration]
prefer familiar people
• Play with other children.
• Recognize ownership
• Read to / tell stories daily.
objects
• Provide opportunities to establish contact and engage
• Develop friendships
with other children and adults to promote a sense of
• Solve problems •
self and social development
Show pride
accomplishments
 •

Approximate Age 2 to 3 Years

• What Children Do • What Children need/what care Givers Provide for

•• • Enjoy learning new skills • In addition to the above:

• Learn language rapidly
• Opportunities to children to dress themselves, use toilets,
• Are always on the go •
wash hands, brush teeth, comb hair etc
Gain control of hands and
Providing children with objects that encourage sorting
fingers
matching, imagining, pushing, puling etc
Are easily frustrated
Naming body parts and other common objects in and
Act more independent, but are
still dependent Act out around child’s environment.
familiar scenes Provide opportunity to make choices and engage in
different tasks
• Giving opportunities to learn think and understand from
concrete to abstract
• Opportunities to listen and articulate short stories and
rhymes indulge in imaginative play and simple problem
solving activities
• Identifying and giving special attention to ‘at risk’
children. Developmental screening of all children is
essential to provide critical intervention that allows
opportunities for children’s development
• Early identification of impairments/disabilities and
initiating medical intervention and parent counseling and
parent training to provide necessary stimulation is
necessary for supporting children with disabilities and
developmental delay
Games to Play for development

• Thinking games
• Memory games
• Logic games
• Questioning games
• Outdoor games

• Thinking Games
• Board games, games like Name-Place-Animal-Thing, giving children problems to think
through, block play are all thinking games. In which the child will have to use his ‘thinking
 •

cap’ and find the solution or complete the game. It is very important to develop thinking
skills in children as it enhances their intrapersonal intelligence. In short, it makes them ‘self-
smart’. Board games like Ludo, Snakes and Ladder and then Chess and Draughts are good to
begin with.
• Pen and pencil games like Name-Place-Animal-Thing are so simple (and you can write for
your child, as they may not know how to write all the words). Here you give a letter and the
child has to think of a name that begins with the letter, a place, like city, country that begins
with the letter and similarly an animal and a thing.
• Block play is an ideal thinking game, give them a scene to create and see how your child uses
his creativity and thinking skills together. Pose a problem while he is making a structure with
his blocks, ask questions like “where will the cars be parked?” or “How will the people enter
the house?” etc. to enhance his ‘thinking through’ skills.
• Memory Games
Remember the simple tray game that we would play at birthday parties when we were
young? Yes, there would be a group of objects on a tray, we would be asked to have a look
and then the tray would be covered with a cloth and children had to try to remember what
was there on the tray.
• Even asking children to recollect what happened during their last birthday party or going
through the sequence of events of the day from morning, all these are activities that help
develop memory and help in revisiting information and past experiences this helps strengthen
memory and connections between neurons.
• Logic Games
Puzzles, riddles, games of hide and seek, paper and pen activities like find the odd-one, find
the hidden one or find the missing part etc. are all activities that help develop logical
thinking skills.
When a child plays with a puzzle or jigsaw slowly he develops the ability to look at the piece
and decide whether it would fit in the given space or not, this helps reduce the time spent on
solving the puzzle and gives him the satisfaction of completing the task faster.
When you play the age old game of hiding a small toy in the room and the child has to find
where it could be, he is using his logical thinking to understand that he has to look for the toy
according its size or colour.
• Questioning Games
Why do cows have horns? Why don't dogs have horns? Are questions that children like being
asked and like to ask as these kind of questions help make them practising their thinking
skills? Here we must remember that questioning should be fun and should not be limited to
ask the child his school studies, in short it should not turn into a test but should be fun and
invigorating to the child and not frustrating and stressful. These kinds of games also help
develop language skills and the parents can gain an insight into the thought process of the
child in handling unique questions and imaginary situations.
• Outdoor Games
 •

Researchers have also observed that when children played in an environment dominated by
play structures rather than natural elements, they established their social hierarchy through
physical competence. Outdoor commercial games like soccer, jungle gym, ball pool and the
colour bubble at Mac’s promote one-upmanship, aggression and hence lead to a hyper
stressed out child, whereas if it is an open lawn , they do not compete.
• Rough-tumble play
i) The physical interactions required in rough and tumble play, children are learning the
give-andtake of appropriate social interactions.
ii) They become adept at both signaling and detecting signals - a social skill they will
need and use throughout their lives.
iii) When detecting these signals, they are learning to read and understand the body
language. It also requires children to alternate and change roles. Sometimes one child
chases; at another time, the child is chased.
iv) The social roles practiced and learned in rough and tumble play provide children with
the social knowledge needed for future relationships.
v) Physical exertion of rough and tumble play also supports cardiovascular health.
vi) Since rough and tumble play is so physical, children get many of their vital touch
needs met through the play. Because the preschool period is a critical period for
children to develop both physically and emotionally, rough and tumble play for pre-
schoolers is invaluable."