At Chicago Children’s Museum, we know the power of play, especially during difficult times.
To highlight our commitment to our mission, to your children and families, and to play, we’re featuring Natalie Bortoli, Chicago Children’s Museum’s Vice President of Educational Programming and Experience Development. In this five-part Parenting Playbook series, we’ll hear Natalie’s expert thoughts on why we need play now—maybe more than ever.
By Natalie Bortoli
How Adults Can Support Play
When it comes to play, children are often naturals—but grownups play a significant role in nurturing and facilitating those valuable experiences. Adults can support play in the following ways:
Create a safe environment.
Help children understand that your home is a safe place, and adults are working right now to make their community safe too.
If possible, designate space in your home (inside, and outside, if available) where children have space, time, and freedom to play as they choose.
Children can also help maintain your safe home environment by joining you in washing hands, cleaning surfaces, etc. Try to strike a balance between having children help tidy their play spaces and allowing them to leave out works of “play-in-progress” to return to over time.
Be responsive—and follow their lead.
Show children that all feelings are acceptable. Listen and validate what children are saying. Follow your child’s lead when it comes to conversation and play.
At Chicago Children’s Museum, we educators take a “wait, watch, follow” approach, where we wait to see what children are interested in doing, observe how they are exploring, and then follow-in as needed to help support—rather than directing or leading the way.
Children are masters of play. Follow their lead! Parents can also engage responsively with infants by observing and understanding their non-verbal behaviors and participating in “serve-and-return” exchanges such as mirroring movements, facial expressions, and vocalizations—all critical to building a sense of trust, nurturing, and security.
Help children work past setbacks.
Sometimes frustration sets in when things don’t go our way (true for adults and children!), and this can be even more exaggerated in times of stress. Help your child in these moments by encouraging creativity. What are some different ways they could work past the challenge? Encourage positive behaviors and solutions. This engenders resilience.
Build on your child’s strengths.
What are things your child does well? Drawing, reading, solving puzzles, physical strength, and agility? Accentuate those things right now and offer more ways for them to further explore their strengths.
Step back.
There is great benefit to giving children space and time to make up their own ways of playing, without adult intervention. Take some time to be a passive observer of your child’s play. These opportunities allow children to develop necessary autonomy and self-sufficiency. They also allow adults to recognize and appreciate children’s individuality—and to maybe take a moment to attend to other things!
When grownups follow children’s leads and help support their play, everyone has more fun—and maybe learns a few things along the way.