• Published by Salsabilatuzzahra Jaha S.Psi. from BehaviorPALS Center 

The world of children cannot be separated from playing activities. Play can be interpreted as any spontaneous or organized activity that brings pleasure and entertainment. Children play a lot for fun. In addition, children also play to know more about their world. Playing is one aspect of child development which is one of the needs of children to develop. So parents, let your children play so they can grow!

The Importance of Play
Besides playing being one of the needs of children to develop, playing also has other important roles! While playing, physical health, social, emotional well-being, and positive mental health are channeled through play. In addition, by playing children will also explore and gain a lot of experience. From this experience, children will learn problem-solving and social skills. This is important for a child's life when they are older. Playing is also proven to increase children's intelligence.

Get to know your child's play skills level!

Parents, please note that each child's developmental age has different playing abilities as well. This needs to be known as a parent's guide to provide the right game for children. In addition, by looking at the stages of children's play skills, we can make early detection if there are developmental problems in your children. 

Let’s see the following explanation about the child's play skill stage!

2-10 Months

At this age, some children's play skills are at the exploratory level. Simple abilities that are starting to develop are:

• The child can pick up and see toys
• The child plays with toys using both hands (e.g. shakes, squeezes, rubs, puts in mouth, licks or kisses)
• The child can play in 3 different ways with one toy.

10-18 Months
At this age, the child's play stage is more than just exploratory but has also started at the relational stage. At this stage the child's playing abilities that have developed are:

• Children can unpack their toys
• Children arrange toys in a simple way
• The child puts several toys together in certain ways

12-18 Months
In a child's first year of life, the child's ability to play has entered the functional stage. The following is the child's ability at the level of functional play:

• Children play functionally with toys or simply do pretend play

• Children play pretend games with their toys in a simple way directed to themselves.
• Children begin to include dolls or action figures in their pretend play.
• Children begin to include other people in their simple pretend play.
• Children use the same action pretend play with two different people or dolls/figures

18-30 Months

At this age level, apart from playing functionally, children have also developed symbolic play. The following is the child's ability to play at the symbolic stage:

• The child moves with the doll or action figure as if they were alive.
• The child performs 2 different actions in pretend play with the same toy.
• The child performs more than 3 different actions in pretend play with the same toy
• Children use a toy/object to represent or replace other toys
• Children use pretend objects in play
• Children begin to have a role during pretend play directed by others.
• Children begin to give suggestions to themselves and others to determine the distribution of roles in pretend play.
• The child develops pretend play with others in the form of (a) new role (b) a new theme, and/or (c) a fantasy role.

Knowing the child's play skill level is very important for parents. Apart from being able to give suitable toys to children, parents may also know early when your children may not be playing at their level. The sooner it is detected, the better the treatment will be. Hope this reading is helpful!

By Salsabilatuzzahra Jaha S.Psi from the BehaviorPALS Center

Source :

KidSense (3 April, 2023). KidSense.com. https://childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/play-and-social-developmental-charts/

J.Kennedy. (3 April 2023), reachformontessori.com. https://reachformontessori.com/6-stages-of-play-in-early-childhood/

Children, Development, Playskill

Pre-school 2 Years - 4 Years / 2 Tahun - 4 Tahun (Balita) / Psychological Development / Tumbuh Kembang Psikologis / Education / Pendidikan / Let's get to know your child's play skills level!

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