The Importance of Play in Language Development
During play, a child can practice their language, problem solving, motor, and social skills.
At first glance, a child’s play may seem insignificant, but play is a fundamental part of a child’s development. Fred Rogers said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” The team at Bellflower couldn’t agree more! During play, a child can practice their language, problem solving, motor, and social skills. Research shows that language development is highly correlated with a child’s play skills. Speech-language pathologists use play to assess specific associated language skills and to engage children during therapy.
Fred Rogers said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”
As with all areas of development, play has defined milestones that children acquire in a predictable order. Arguably the most well-known framework for detailing the stages of play is the Westby Play Scale. Developed in 1980 by Carol Westby, she described the expected stages of play for children ages 9 months to 5 years, as well as the language skills that should parallel them. As a child grows, his or her play skills will become more elaborate. Parents can use this guideline to determine what areas of play and language to focus on at home, as well as to see what skills may emerge next in their child’s development. If you have any concerns about your child’s play and language milestones, we encourage you to reach out to your pediatrician or contact us for a free consultation.
The Westby Play Scale
9 to 12 Months
Play: A child becomes aware that when an object is hidden, it has not disappeared. They also begin to crawl or walk to get what they want. The child starts to use some toys appropriately instead of mouthing and banging all objects
Language: Makes requests or demands using vocalizations, first true word emerges around 12 months.
13 to 17 Months
Play: The child begins to purposefully explore toys. He or she will try to discover how toys work from trial and error and if they are unable to figure it out will hand the toy to an adult.
Language: The child uses context dependent single words and words tend to come and go in the child’s vocabulary. He or she can request, command, protest, label, respond, and greet using gestures and vocalizations.
Children will try to discover how toys work from trial and error around 13 to 17 months of age.
17 to 19 Months
Play: The child uses autosymbolic, or self-symbolic play, for example he or she pretends to go to sleep, drink from a cup, or eat from a spoon. The child also uses most common objects and toys appropriately, develops tool-use (such as using a stick to reach a toy), and finds hidden toys.
Language: This period marks the beginning of true verbal communication. Children generally cannot refer to absent people or situations yet.
19 to 22 Months
Play: Symbolic play extends beyond the child’s self, such as brushing a doll’s hair, feeding a doll a bottle, or covering a doll with a blanket. The child can exhibit pretend play on more than one person or object; for example, he or she may pretend to feed themself, their parent, and a doll. The child is able to combine two toys in pretend play, such as pouring from a pot into a cup or putting a spoon in a pan.
Language: Word combinations begin to appear, and possession can show up as well, such as “my” or “mine”. The child can reference people or objects that aren’t present.
At 17 to 19 months of age the child also uses most common objects and toys appropriately, develops tool-use (such as using a stick to reach a toy), and finds hidden toys.
2 Years
Play: The child’s play represents their daily experiences. For example, the child may play house and is the mommy, daddy, or baby. Play sequences are short and isolated, such as putting food in a pan, stirring, then eating. Block play consists of stacking and knocking them down. Sand and water play consist of filling, pouring, and dumping.
Language: The child begins to talk about daily experiences using short sentences (2-3+ words). Present tense verbs (verb+ing- “jumping”), plurals, and possessives begin to appear. The child begins to use social language, such as pretending, sharing information, and questioning, but these are not perfected.
2.5 Years
Play: The child’s play represents events less frequently experienced, particularly memorable or impressive events, such as visiting the doctor or shopping at a store. Play sequences are still short and isolated and require realistic props. The child uses parallel play, but associative play is emerging.
Language: The child responds appropriately to most WH questions and begins to ask WH questions. “Why” questions continue to be difficult both to answer and to ask.
3 Years
Play: The child’s play sequences become more complex and less isolated. For example, a child mixes a cake, bakes it, serves it, and then washes the dishes. The child can reenact experienced events with new outcomes. He or she engages in associative play.
Language: The child uses past tense (“I ate the cake”) and future tense (“I’m gonna wash dishes”).
By age 3 years the child can reenact experienced events, such as playing house or doctor. He or she engages others in their play (associative play).
3 to 3.5 Years
Play: Play sequences evolve into using less realistic props. Theory of mind, the child’s ability to take on someone else’s perspective, begins to develop during play.
Language: Metalinguistic abilities, the ability to think and comment about play, begin to show. The child’s descriptive language expands, such as shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and spatial relationships. The child gives dialogue to dolls.
3.5 to 4 Years
Play: The child begins to problem-solve events they have not experienced and hypothesize using “what if”. He or she can use dolls to act out scenes. Block play consists of building 3D structures the child has seen.
Language: Modals (can, may, might, could, would, will) and conjunctions (and, but, if, so, because) appear. The child begins to respond appropriately to “Why” and “How” questions.
5 years
Play: The child can organize what they need for future events and can coordinate more than one event at a time. Play is highly imaginative and realistic props are not necessary. The child is able to engage in full cooperative play.
Language: The child needs language for this stage. The child is able to use time concepts such as first, then, when, while, next, before, and after.
As you can see, play and language development are intertwined. Interested in learning more about how you can help support play and language development at home? Keep an eye out for the next blog post in this series as we dive more in depth to each developmental level of play and what you can do at home to promote language through play.