As an interdisciplinary field, play can quickly get complicated. In fact, the topic of play happens to be so nuanced that developmental psychologists, evolutionary psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and even neuroscientists study play...
Good thing you’ve stumbled here— I happen to be a Certified Play Expert with over a decade of play experience! This post will introduce you to common types of play and how each type of play supports childhood development. You'll leave here with a much clearer understanding of how kids play, along with toys that complement each type of play.
First, we'll go over a few main types of play: free play, guided play, and competitive play. During free play a kid can take part in many other forms of play. We'll look at some of the most common subcategories, including: dramatic play, physical play, pretend play, constructive play, nature play, and creative play. Next, we'll turn to guided play and it's subcategory, sensory play. Lastly, we'll go over competitive play and games.
Types of Play
✨Free Play
👑 Dramatic Play
🤸🏾♀️ Physical Play
🦖 Pretend Play
🏢 Constructive Play
🌱 Nature Play
🎨 Creative Play
✨ Guided Play
💦 Sensory Play
⚽️ Competitive Play
🎲 Games
✨ Free Play
Free Play is centered on unstructured time for kids to play– it’s child-initiated and child-led, with little to no adult intervention. Free play is intrinsically motivated and encourages kids to try things out through trial and error,
When a child engages in free play alone, they’re left to use their imagination with the toys or objects that they have open access to. Solitary free play can be easily confused with independent play. Independent play tends to involve more structured activities with less open range.
Examples: Kids might make up their own games, create imaginary worlds, or come up with other elaborate ideas– but, they’re the ones in charge of what and how to play. Caregivers may supervise from a distance or stay within earshot of the child or children, only stepping in if necessary.
Developmental Skills: Problem solving, language development, coordination
Teaches: Autonomy, sharing, cooperation
👑 Dramatic Play
Dramatic play involves kids exploring different roles and scenarios as they expand their understanding of the world and themselves.
Examples: Dramatic play can look like a kid trying on dress up clothes; doing housekeeping tasks; caretaking of a doll or stuffed animal; cooking in pretend kitchens; playing doctor, house, school; etc.
Developmental Skills: Speech and language; classification; executive function skills (in this case, planning out their play scenario); problem solving (stuffed animal is sick and child has to figure out a way to heal it)
Teaches: Creativity, imagination, collaboration
Toys or Supplies: Play kitchen; grocery store toys; dolls; stuffed animals; doctor's kit; playsilks
Note: It’s natural for little ones to reenact a wide spectrum of scenarios. This can include acting out their daily routines, performing scenes from a book or movie. Kids process through play, so it’s even typical for them to act out tough scenarios their families might be facing such as divorce or the passing of a loved one.
🤸🏾♀️ Physical Play
Also referred to as active play, physical play is all about movement. It involves both fine and gross motor skills.
Example: Physical play can look like a kid running around in open space; trying out yoga poses; dancing; climbing a structure; playing catch; jumping on a Nugget couch etc.
Developmental Skills: Focus and attention; coordination; muscle development; body and spatial awareness
Teaches: Self-awareness; perseverance; resilience; stamina
Toys or Supplies: Open space for child to play; pikler climber; balance beam; balls
🙃 Rough and Tumble Play
Rough and Tumble play is a form of physical play that's important for learning limits and building social bonds.
Examples: Kids engaged in a wrestling match or body tackle. While it’s nearly first instinct to want to break up rough and tumble play, it’s actually a developmentally appropriate type of play. Tickle fights are another example!
Developmental Skills: Social bonds; gross motor skills
Teaches: Boundaries and limits; respect
🦖 Pretend Play
During pretend play, kids manipulate action toys or figurines to create elaborate play scenarios. Similar to dramatic play, pretend play provides children with a safe space to replay and process everything from daily routines to emotional events.
Example: Child narrates the life of a toy figurine
Developmental Skills: Fine motor skills, storytelling,
Teaches: Imagination, resilience
Toys or Supplies: Action figures, animals, cars, figurines or toys that represent people
🏢 Constructive Play
Unsurprisingly, constructive play is all about construction. During constructive play, a child is focused on building a structure.
In the early years (between ages 1 and 2) constructive play typically starts out as stacking, then kids learn the word “tower” and become adamant about building towers. After the tower phase (between ages 2 and 3), toddlers start getting more creative as their language and fine motor skills advance— suddenly they’re excited to show off their castle, digger, city, robot, and a myriad of other constructions.
Example: Child attempts to build a structure using loose part materials or toy blocks
Developmental Skills: Spatial reasoning; sorting; classification; introduction to STEM; mathematical and problem solving skills; fine motor skills
Teaches: Patience; determination; planning
Toys or Supplies: Magna-tiles; wooden blocks; Duplo legos
🌱 Nature Play
Nature play allows kids to connect with the outdoors and centers their natural curiosity. More and more research has begun to reveal that nature play is one of the most impactful types of play.
Example: Has a kid ever bought you a mud pie? That's nature play in action!
Developmental Skills: Intro to STEM; cause and effect; observation; classification; sorting
Teaches: Respect and appreciation for nature; curiosity; mindfulness
Toys or Supplies: Bowl for collecting nature finds; container or pail for water; travel-size spray bottle for watering plants
🎨 Creative Expression
Creative expression involves any form of artistic expression, kids often make or produce a final product through creative play.
The final product can physical or everlasting, like on a canvas or piece of paper. The final product can also be something a child is proud to show off or share but its' existence is only temporary-- like a dance they learned, a cookie they made for you, a song performed on an instrument.
🖌 Traditional Art
Keep in mind, most toddlers aren’t Monet prodigies. A lot of the art they create will probably be scribbles with crayons or random paint strokes until around age 2 and a half. But, creative play is less about the end product and more about the process of a child experimenting with colors and developing the muscles to control their utensils.
In case you needed to hear it from someone— you are not obligated to keep every piece of artwork a child brings home or makes for you.
Example: Finger painting;
Developmental Skills: Fine motor skills
Teaches: Patience; planning
Toys or Supplies: Art kits; watercolor paint; water brush; blank notebooks; paint sticks; bleeding tissue paper
🥁 Musical Expression
Through musical expression, kids create sounds, rhythms, and melodies to communicate feelings, stories, or simply enjoy the joy of music. This form of play can also be a supportive aid in generating connections between the part of the brain that connects with emotions and memories.
Example: Child making up their own song or using household objects and/or instruments to produce sounds.
Developmental Skills: Fine motor skills; cause and effect; problem solving (how to hold a beat); rhythm; memory and repetition
Teaches: Self-expression; imagination; cultural awareness
Toys or Supplies: Egg shakers; maracas; repurpose an empty oats container for a soft hand drum; educational music artists for kids to listen to: Laurie Beckner Band; Raffi
✨ Guided Play
Guided play is child-led and inspired by the interests of a child. The adult's role is to provide scaffolding to meet a learning goal. This form of play falls along a spectrum between free play and games (which are structured). NAEYC refers to guided play as a form of playful learning¹.
Examples: Within a play setup designed to teach shapes, a grownup might see a kid playing various shaped blocks and then prompt them by asking a question like, "Do you think you could show me how to build a tower using only rectangle shaped blocks?"
Here's another example of guided play from The LEGO Foundation². Although the example is geared toward educators, any caregiver or play facilitator can apply a similar approach during guided play:
"Children building with blocks will often go as high as possible. Noticing this, an educator can suggest they compare which tower is taller, count how many blocks each tower has, and even use blocks as a unit of measure to compare heights and lengths of all kinds of objects in the class."
Developmental Skills: Problem solving; color recognition; sorting; classification; vocabulary; counting; Intro to STEM skills
Teaches: Adaptability (adjusting to given guidelines), specific academic or life concepts (like colors, shapes, numbers, or social scenarios)
Toys or Supplies: Shape sorters; puzzles; guided Lego kits
🌊 Sensory Play
Sensory Play engages multiple senses at the same time. Activities under this category involve stimulating visual (colors, patterns), auditory (sound, noise), kinesthetic (movement, motion), or tactile (touch, feel, texture) components. You can also activate olfactory receptors through pleasing scents like cinnamon or peppermint.
Sensory Play falls under guided play for a couple reasons: (1) Young toddlers require supervision due to choking hazards and general safety. (2) Unlike the openness of free play, it's common for caregivers to set up sensory bins that revolve around a theme, season, or holiday. However, most kids ages 3 and up can do sensory play independently.
Example: Washing toys in a sensory bin; sand play; shaving cream mixing; sensory bottles
Developmental Skills: Fine motor skills; exploration of cause & effect; observation; sensory exposure
Teaches: Imagination; mindfulness; self-expression (through clay and play dough use)
Toys or Supplies: Play dough; clear sensory bins; small toy figurines
✨ Competitive Play
Through Competitive Play kids engage in games or activities with defined rules and a clear objective. This form of play often introduces little ones to the concept of winning or achieving a goal before others, as well as how to handle defeat.
Competitive play helps kids see competition in a positive light and motivates them to simply do their best. It also provides a safe environment for little ones to experience and manage a healthy amount of pressure.
Examples: Races; treasure hunts; obstacle courses; a game of Hot Potato; Soccer Shots
Developmental Skills: Gross motor skills; coordination; problem solving (how to win or why did they loose); memory (remembering the rules)
Teaches: Patience, rule following; leadership; sportsmanship; turn taking; self-regulation; collaboration; self-confidence
Toys or Supplies: Soccer ball; basketball; mini size football; goals or orange cones
🎲 Games
Games allow kids to familiarize themselves with structure and rules.
Examples: There are many forms of games: board games; card games; physical games (games that require movement), educational games (including games that require memory and observation); and guessing games to name a few.
Developmental Skills: Fine motor skills; memory; concentration; attention
Teaches: Self-regulation; turn-taking; patience; delayed gratification; mindfulness
Toys or Supplies: Candyland; Zingo; Lion in the Way; Twister; Pick Up Sticks; Memory card games
Citations:
¹ Jensen, H., Pyle, A., Zosh, J. M., Ebrahim, H. B., Zaragoza Scherman, A., Reunamo, J., & Hamre, B. K. (2019). Play facilitation: the science behind the art of engaging young
children (white paper). The LEGO Foundation, DK.
² Digital excerpt from book by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children): Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8. 4th ed. (2022) Washington, DC