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Social & Emotional Development
Developing Relationships with Peers & Adults
WiseTip: SE-REL-M1626-P01C

Have regular unstructured play and let your child lead and decide how to play.

1, 2, 3

  1. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children.

  2. Kwon, K.-A., Bingham, G., Lewsader, J., Jeon, H.-J., & Elicker, J. (2013). Structured Task versus Free Play: The Influence of Social Context on Parenting Quality, Toddlers’ Engagement with Parents and Play Behaviours, and Parent-Toddler Language Use. Child & Youth Care Forum, 42(3), 207–224. (Level IV)

  3. Gardner-Neblett, N., Holochwost, S.J., Gallagher, K.C., Iruka, I.U., Odom, S.L., & Pungello,E.P. (2016). Guided versus independent play: Which better sustains attention among infants and toddlers? Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). (Level III)

16-26 months
Play
WHY IT MATTERS

Young children benefit significantly from having play partners.

1
  1. Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1): 182–191. (Level IV)
Playing with others enhances children's development of social skills, language and learning abilities. When a child becomes a toddler, having an adult as a play partner helps the child develop self-direction, turn-taking and reciprocity.
2
  1. Fiese, B. H. (1990). Playful relationships: A contextual analysis of mother-toddler interaction and symbolic play. Child Development, 61(5), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130772 (Level IV)

Free, non-directive play, which allows the child to take the lead in play, was found to be most effective for developing prosocial skills.

3, 4

  1. Kwon, K.-A., Bingham, G., Lewsader, J., Jeon, H.-J., & Elicker, J. (2013). Structured Task versus Free Play: The Influence of Social Context on Parenting Quality, Toddlers’ Engagement with Parents and Play Behaviours, and Parent-Toddler Language Use. Child & Youth Care Forum, 42(3), 207–224. (Level IV)

  2. Gardner-Neblett, N., Holochwost, S.J., Gallagher, K.C., Iruka, I.U., Odom, S.L., & Pungello,E.P. (2016). Guided versus independent play: Which better sustains attention among infants and toddlers? Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). (Level III)

Play is a good way for children to acquire skills for building relationships with others.

Children love toys and need to be able to interact with objects to construct knowledge about the properties of their world.

5
  1. Hagens, H. E. (1997). Strategies for encouraging peer interactions in infant/toddler programmes. Early Childhood Education Journal, 25, 147–149. (Level III) USA.

Symbolic or pretend play

Symbolic Play - Play that occurs when a child transforms the physical environment into a symbol. In the symbolic play, children use a variety of objects in symbolic play.1 They learn to transform objects, substituting them for other objects and acting toward them as if they were those other objects.2 For example, a broomstick is a horse, and a paper plate is a steering wheel.

1. Santrock, J. W. (2011). Child Development (14th ed.). New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Education.

2. Smith, P. K. (2007). Pretend play and children’s cognitive and literacy development: Sources of evidence and some lessons from the past. In K. A. Roskos & J. F. Christie (Eds.), Play and literacy in early childhood. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

with toys, helps build the necessary language, self and emotional regulation as well as imitation and turn-taking skills required for building relationships.
2
  1. Fiese, B. H. (1990). Playful relationships: A contextual analysis of mother-toddler interaction and symbolic play. Child Development, 61(5), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130772 (Level IV)