Why is my Child so Bossy when we Play?
Why is my Child so Bossy when we Play?
Benefits on independent play and how to encourage it
In this newsletter, we provide you with notes on Five Things You Can Do to Boost Your Child's Play, an episode of The Balanced Parent Podcast.
Hosted by Dr. Laura Froyen, PhD in Human Development and Family Studies with an emphasis on Couple and Family Therapy and a mother.
Read our notes below.
Topics Covered in this Summary
The Importance of Independent Play for Children
Five Ways to Boost Your Child's Play
The Importance of Independent Play for Children
Independent play is not unsupervised play. Independent play is when children play by themselves with a parent nearby. It is an important type of play, and as parents, we should not feel guilty about allowing our children to play independently because it promotes cognitive skills, language skills, imagination, creative play, patience, and self-regulation skills.
Five Ways to Boost Your Child’s Play
As your child grows, their attention span and physical skills will develop, and the way they play will change. Your child will get more creative and experiment more with toys, games, and ideas. This might mean they need more space and time to play, and our job as parents is to support whatever it is that is good for them.
We can support them in the following ways:
Make sure the toys are easily accessible. Make sure the toys are engaging, and appropriate for the age of the child. It may help to look at what skills they are currently developing.
Allow them to take the lead. Let them set the agenda and come up with ideas. They know what kind of play they require, and as parents, we must step back and let them lead.
Let yourself be bored during their play. Try not to be so entertaining and let them do the "heavy lifting" in playing.
Narrate their play or verbally describe what they're doing with their toys because, if we ask them questions, it takes them out of their play and distracts their focus and concentration. Just talk through what your kids are doing during the play.
Let them boss you around. It can feel uncomfortable and that is okay. Remember that the play is actually for your child and not for yourself. Your child bossing you around during playtime means letting them lead and direct you to understand that your role is an assistant in the play and your kid is the director.
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Listen to the original episode