I remember being a little girl and playing barbies in my room for hours. As I got older I would spend hours in my room reading. Reading progressed into playing on my computer. Even today I still crave my alone time. I guess that’s just part of being an only child.
Ever since Chase started actually playing with toys he is becoming more and more like me in his desire to play independently. A month or so ago he even started crawling back to his own room and shutting the door, as if to tell me “I’d like to be alone mom”. He can and often does spend an hour or better playing by himself. Please note, I’m not really leaving him alone, I keep a close eye on him and have diligently safe-guarded his room so that he can safely play alone in there.
On one hand this makes me happier than I can say because as you all probably know I’m about to have baby number 2. Chase being able to entertain himself for any stretch of time will be really important for me in the coming weeks.
On the other hand.
At his last doctor’s appointment I had to answer “no” to a lot of the “is he doing this” questions. Something as simple as stacking blocks. I realized that because he likes to play alone he isn’t really playing with some toys as they are meant to be played with. He also isn’t talking yet and I feel like part of that, a big part, is my fault. I’m a pretty quiet person by nature so I’m not one of those moms who talks to her child non-stop throughout the day, explaining every little thing I’m doing. He likes to “read” books just not with me, his version of reading consists of flipping through his books by himself.
Suddenly I’m feeling like maybe I should be doing more structured play time with him. We have had success teaching him the mechanics of the ring stackers and how to stack blocks. We are slowly working on him letting me be more active in his reading. I’m really trying to catch him up so the next doctor’s appointment I get to say “yes” more but, um, it’s hard. Yanno?
So here’s where YOU can benefit from my parenting woes, we
have a special LEGO DUPLO prize pack that YOU can win! All you have to
do is leave a comment on this post and tell me how you work in structured playtime. The contest will run from today, October 18th, until 5pm on Sunday, October 31th. The winner will be
selected randomly. GOOD LUCK!
I don’t call it structured playtime, but after spending time outside on the climbers, enjoying hide and seek or playing with the leaves, the kids love to settle down on the carpet and occupy themselves with Legos, K’nex or a board game
When babysitting my Grandson, I always spend 15 minutes with a book then half an hour with block shapes and more time with lego block building. He loves it because we always do the same things in the same order and he grabs for what is next and is happy to play with “Nana”.
Plan one big thing per day.
Our days are so busy already, beside cleaning, cooking washing laundry, shopping, working…..
So we plan one activity per day like playground, baking, cooking together, crafting, dress up games and others….
Mostly they are out at there grandparents, so much fun. Easy to keep them active outside. Gardening, creating your own imaginary garden with marbels and other toys.
Let them help in your daily routine, they love to interact, like hanging up laundry, vacuuming (i got a dyson d23, super for little kids, since I can extend the host or just keep it small), washing the dishes or floors, they just love helping.
Hope this gives some little ideas 😉
I too, remember playing with dolls, puzzles etc and reading books alone in my room for hours on end.
My daughter (an only child) has not been graced with the ability to play by herself and needs (or maybe prefers) to be engaged by someone else at all times.
I try to structure playtime that also involves some kind of learning. Board games with dice that encourage her to count on sight or learn simple multiplication.
Card games that emphasize patterns or matching.
It can become a bit much to have to be involved in every aspect of playtime to some degree but I feel better about it if I’m teaching her something that will have positive impact down the road !
I set out specific days that we all do a certain playtime together. One night a week we play a game, another night is dance night, and on the weekend we choose a family fun activity, like swimming or trampoline.
We use structured play every night. My son has some play time before his bath. We do this every night and it really gives him a chance to get out all of that last bits of energy to tire him out for bedtime! It is also a nice bonding time with either myself or my husband because we are able to focus on him and really play together!
my grandbabies are around a year & I thought they would love all the musical toys & flashing lights
.Which of course they do, however there is so much over stimulation that they just seemed to get buzzed.
So I am quietly exchanging these toys for learning toys & quiet toys. We are all enjoying them much more, they love the books when we read & the building blocks as well. I think that it is the interaction that we all love the most
I SO much enjoy having my 3yr old grandson living with me (plus his mom, my daughter). They have been with me since he was born, and he is a joy to be around. When I play with him, I get down on his level, which he thoroughly thinks is cool! His little mind is full of wonder, and he is constantly trying to learn new things, so, when I buy toys, I have this in mind.
I don’t believe in structured play time. My living room, until the end of the day, looks like a bomb has gone off in it. My 3 oldest children, the oldest 7, next 5 almost 6, and then my 3 1/2 year old have fun playing and creating. Duplo makes a great structure as a dog’s house and then add on the Little People’s farm and other play sets and you have a small village in your living room. The 3 girls play for hours. We are now mixing in a 6 month old brother and so smaller things are carefully monitored but he tries with the largest pieces of duplo to play and interact with them. They are careful of him and make sure that his toys are where he can get at them as well.
Castle building with blocks or taking an empty box and making a puppet house to put on a show has also been done.
At the end of the day the girls are given a 10 minute tidy up time and all toys are put in their bins and off for the rest of the bedtime routine.
My favourite part of it all is having them explain to me their creative minds at work!
My granddaughter comes and stays on sleep-overs. Structured play is all day long!
She loves reading books, playing with dolls and cooking with Grandma!
We don’t have what you call “structured play” but my husband and I set time aside each and every day to spend time with our children and do activities, talk about what’s important to each of our children and spend time with each of them together and separately.
I never did a lot of structured play with my kids but I did try to incorporate “learning moments” like during meal times, bathtime, bedtime, travel time and waiting time. These are little bits of time where you can pack in a whole lot of teaching and learning, without having to fit in a separate time of day for structured play. Otherwise it was free play for my kids for the most part.
I don’t really have structured playtimes with my son. I let him play as he wants and we do lots of fun activities together
Interesting points however I don’t feel the need to incorporate structured play with children. Kids need to understand themselves and we can only do so by allowing them to explore their surroundings freely and make sense of things around them. It can be helpful as a form of discipline for children to know what expectations are laid out by their parents however majority of the time, kids need to be encouraged to express themselves whether through toys, arts and crafts, games, etc.
I’ve never had any set structured play with children. I find free play allows children to explore there world better. However this doesn’t mean we do not do organized activities together. My girls are big fans of art and crafts. Not only does this give the girls an opportunity to be creative and explore different materials and techniques but opportunity to learn colours, shapes, problem solving and work on fine motor kills. We also enjoy baking and cooking together. Usually followed by a tea party to enjoy the treats or snacks we’ve made. This is great time to work on manners and being social with others. I find each day has many opportunites to teach, learn, interact with our children. You just have to watch for them!
I’m a firm believer that the ‘basic’ toys without all of the bells and whistles, offer the most rewarding playtime. When you give a child of any age a bin of blocks, made of wood, plastic or even cardboard, they might fashion a maze, a fort, vehicles, castles or anything else. Creative play is underrated in my opinion, and so very valuable for the kids to learn balance, sorting, and develop their imagination. Yay for creative toys!
I work with a play therapist and I’m starting to do some play therapy at work as well. I like to bring some of the techniques I’ve learnt in play therapy home as well. I do have some structured play time where my child and I are sitting and doing something together (like building with blocks, playing with little people, and drawing with crayons). To help my child develop language I ensure that I describe the things that I’m doing and as well as the things that they are doing. I do believe that independent play is a very very important skill to learn as well though.
My children do a variety of things….play puzzles together (they’re quite good at figuring it out themselves), read a lot, play cooking/kitchen (play pretend and for real), we’ve gone to kidz in the kitchen too, help with yard work (they want to, I don’t ask them), building things from blocks, etc, I made my own flash cards with everyday things such as crayons, books, feather, purse, spoon, etc. They also play well by themselves. They play mom/baby and use the doll strollers all the time.
I never considered what we do as structured play, I have a 3yr. old, 11yr old and 13 yr old so I spend most of my day with the 3 yr old playing “pet shop” “kitchen ” ect. we do everthing together as she does not have a lot of friends her age. She does everything I’m doing with me cleaning, cooking ect and we take play breaks from our work. She not a very independant player and only plays for 15 min increments by herself.
Thanks for the great prize op. we would have tons of fun with it.
Playtime is so important that it is a top priority in our home.
We structure playtime so that our kids have a lot of fun while learning at the same time. We choose activities that they love and that will hold their attention.
We do a lot of crafts for every Holiday and to give as gifts to friends and family.
Having time with the children doing one on one activities will help them grow into well rounded indivduals who are smart and who know that they are very loved.
Thanks for offering a great prize. We love to build new and interesting things with building blocks of all kinds.
When I just had one kid we played together a lot and I was more aware of what he was learning. Now, that there’s too there is more free time for both kids but my eldest seems a bit bored with that. Every afternoon (as much as possible) while the youngest naps the oldest one and I play a game of some kind together. He’s able to learn numbers and to take turns and to use his memory during these sorts of games. We both enjoy the time together.
My son loves to play with blocks and I like his imagination.
He makes pretty good structures using blocks.
It improves motor skills in kids.
Playtime at Gramy’s home means no hand held games.
No structured play in my home. I play with my kids as much as possible. We include them in everything we do.
I have never had to call it structured play. Toyes are always available in various educational stages. We have puzzles for all children’s levels, play doh, blocks, light bright, books and the list goes on. The children are able to play with anything through out the day during their free time. We have both family, group (children together) and individual play. Children are included in all household chores to learn new skills and responsibility. We encourage learning and ‘structued play’ through whatever interests the child. This may be as simple as having a task to do during meal prep, developing fine motor through beading/jewelry making. AND as often as possible things must be put away before a new task takes place. Today the kids each wanted to peel a potato with the potato peeler…..
I don’t think we have set structure time. We learn everyday with cooking and cleaning and daily routine. we play a lot too but we talk about patterns, colours and shapes while we clean up and bake. We sing always and have games developed for all tasks. Even at 2 and 3 my kids are passing the big red bowl while making supper and putting away the yellow truck. They sort laundry into piles of shirts, pants, pj’s and learn patterning through the number of things that go in each bucket or how many red shirts are in the pile.
In the evenings we do puzzles and blocks for hours. We build robots out of blocks and houses for their robots out of laundry baskets and old boxes. The biggest thing in our house right now is making pumpkins out of everything from dough to construction paper!
we include our daughters in everything we do and we always include ourselves in their play! making time to sit and play with our daughters gives us insight into what they see going on around us. We all learned signing together to encourage communication at a young age. our rewarding moments are when we sit down to play and our daughters are teaching us the rules! we try to leave some educational activities out of reach so that when we do them together, we have the attention needed to work through these learning activities.
When it involves both girls we just go with the flow. Sometimes I give them easier versions of what we are doing (cooking, chores, yardwork) and they find it fun.
We used to do family game time with our 3 year old. Now having a 1 year old that eats parts of games put an end to that.
Now we try to sing, jump on the trampoline, play tag, and switch between barbies, little people and coloring. That said we also let the girls just play together for short periods of time and we also aim for one on one time with each. It is a rough go to get it all in on any given weekend so we just add in what we can when we can.
I have a 3 year old daughter that does a lot of independent play, but we also do structured activities as well (finger painting, baking, reading, playing with wooden trains). I try and do these things while my younger baby is sleeping or content. The activities are somewhat planned, but I go with the flow and don’t introduce them until an appropriate break.
You must make time and take an hour, at least of your day, for this….they pick up things and learn so fast even in this short period of time…from learning abc’s, 123’s, singing, sorting, etc. Even better if it can be the same time each day. Makes for smarter, happier, which means healthier children! 😀
Structured play is a no-no in our house. We believe in letting our children express themselves through play in whatever way they choose.
Structure play hum! Ispend a lot of time playing with my children. Going to the parc, play gym, the pool, movie theatre, playing board game, reading, coloring, lego,the beach, the zoo, ice skating ect… That could have been structure time I guess. I call it spending time with each other.
I’ve never had a truly structured play time, except when other children visit. We usually just have fun playing whenever we are together.
Since the birth of our second daughter, I feel it is especially important to use the baby’s nap times to share playtime with my 3 year old (the house work can wait). I let her pick the activity and the only rule is no batteries (or plugs) allowed. This prize conforms to the rules and would fit into our rotation nicely.
Play time is my favourite time of the day. I love to sit and play with toys and the children.
It’s difficult with a one-year-old to structure anything. It seems that there could be a box of toys in front of him and he always goes for the breakables and/or valuables. Needless to say, anything that I own that isn’t “baby-proof” is on a top shelf somewhere or locked away. However, as he grows older, I’m noticing that there are certain times of the day (for example, before bed, after breakfast, etc.) the playtime is becoming more of a routine for him and he’s getting more interested in toys – ones that light up or make noise especially. If only I could have a live-in nanny or video camera on him 24/7 so mommy could have a cup of tea in peace…. Oh well, he’s our little man and I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything in the world!!!
I fit in when i can during the day. No set time.
I never knew there was anything like structured play. Being a stay at home mom I spent a lot of time with my child.. and we did a lot of fun stuff together.
Now as he is growing he loves to spend time alone reading and with toys – he enjoys building with Lego.. and has a great imagination. We do spend time together but its never something either of us plans for .. it is always spontaneous.
We don’t structure play time as such. But I love to play with their toys so I often start the play time myself. Sometimes we seem to play most of the day.
My kids love to build with their lego and they love to make building, cars and whatever else they can think of!!!
I make time to play with the kids. The world can wait or disintergrate nothing keeps me from seizing every opportunity to play with my children.
kids have too much fun
I fit structured play through out the day when ever it happens, when i am able to have some time to get down and play with the kids.
We would play a game after school each day….fun and a good time to catch up on my child’s news of the day!
We structure having our Grandson on Sat. He know Grandma and Grandpa will take him to something educational – its fun for us all.
We don’t structure play at our house — it just happens. My kids, now 4 and 6, have always been character players meaning that everything — even duplo — becomes a character with a name, voice etc. They’re also big talkers, but that’s because their dad and I both are.
I was an only child and played alone, but still had scenarios or conversations going on in my head about my characters. My son is now at home while my daughter’s at school and so he’s missing his playmate and wants me to play with him.
If your son is not a naturally interactive player you could let him “teach” you how to play his way. My kids like taking turns teaching me to draw a picture a certain way or build a design with blocks following their example. That way your son would still be in charge of the playing, but you both could still be playing together and talking together.
I believe you have to take cues from your child and see what works best for them.
It is incorporated daily into the activities we do, coloring, etc.
We don’t do too much “structured” play as of yet, as my daughter is only just nearing 14 months. I do however spend lots of time with her down on the floor playing with her, pointing things out (colours, what things are, new signs [she loves signing], etc) as we go. 🙂
I schedule play time at the park each day for 30mins right before nap-time. That way it helps us get some exercise in and makes up both ready for our nap!
Follow the child’s example – what is it they seem to be wanting to do at that moment? Join in!
I wouldn’t say we have structured play at our house, but we do take every opportunity we have to engage with our son. Like you, I am also quiet by nature. However, that has totally changed since I had my son. I’ve realized he needs me to talk, sing, read and play with him in order to learn. To be honest, it also keeps things fun and a lot of the stuff I started doing I did just to help me keep my sanity and keep him entertained. Whether it be play, chores, down time in the car, etc. I feel like our son soaks up so much just by simple observation and interaction with others.
I started when he was days old with just the simple act of narrating things I was doing. For example, “Let’s open the cabinet and get out a glass. Now let’s open the freezer and get out some ice. Let’s put the ice in the glass. Let’s fill the glass with water.” When we went up stairs, I would count each one. I made a point of saying things like, “Let’s stack the yellow cup on top of the blue cup.” Mundane, I know and it felt really weird, but I feel like it’s helped. He’s 18months now and I still continue with the same idea. I feel like any time we are just sitting there is time he’s missing out on the opportunity to learn something or interact with me. During our morning and evening commute I do things like say, “Red light. Red means stop.” When it turns green, “Green light. Green means go.” He now does the same thing. If we pass cows, I say, “Look at the cows. Cows say moo.” Now I can ask him, “What do cows say?” and he’ll answer correctly.
I’ve also read to him since he was days old. My son love books. He likes to be read to as well as flip through books on his own. I try to get him involved by asking him to point out things on the page, etc.
My husband and I also make it a point to get down on his level and do things with him. We lay on the floor and stack blocks, we push balls and cars back and forth to each other.
I also notice he learns so many things through simple observation and parroting what he sees my husband and I do.
I’m not sure about your schedule, but as working parents we have very little “play” time to spend with our son at all. It’s sad, really, so we make the most of the time we do have. I say forget structured and just look at simple things in everyday life as learning opportunities.
I find routine is very important for little ones. From the age of 6 months we have been reading books every night to our little one. We also have a bed time routine which is the same everynight and helps him sleep better. I find children need that routine and it sounds logical to have structured play time. Lego or blocks seems to be one of the best toys too – they can build using their imagination.
i just find what my children want to do, boring sometimes.
i try to take them out and/or create new games
I agree with structured playtime being incorporated into everyday activies.
Wake up early and get in some time first thing in the morning when everyone is fresh and awake.
I find the best time for our family for structured play is right after dinner when the family is all together anyway, before everyone drifts away and get busy with their own individual interests and activities. We use this structured play time to do puzzles and stack blocks and duplo, and play with other educational toys. This way, the family gets to spend some quality time together and have fun.
I think structured play time can just be incorporated into any activity. There is always a point where your child wants you to be a partner in the play and it’s only a matter of being open to those moments. Children are so open to learning that it takes very little to engage them. Trying to teach a child to stack blocks wehe he’s happily engaged in his own plan will often end bably but showing him how to stack something like blocks as a joke and then saying this would work so much better with your blocks can engage his imagination.
when i have my granddaighter over we do special things like puzzles; reading and now that she is 5 we have baking days just her and I and alot of cookies and cakes love the time as it is ours and she learns why we have to follow recipes and as I told her recipes are like lifes rules they are there for a reason so things run smoothly
I didn’t do structured play time. If reading books to your child is structured play time then that was it. My daughter constantly wanted to be read to. I was happy to oblige.
I don’t think structured playtime is really the issue, it’s interactive playtime that is the most important thing. When my four-year-old was younger, I spent a lot of time down on the floor, interacting with him and encouraging his efforts. To me, “structured” playtime implies showing a child the “right” way to do something, and I just don’t believe that approach is very necessary.
Children learn through their experiments and experiences with the world around them. Eventually, they will pile blocks on top of one another to see what happens; it’s inevitable. What is helpful, however, is to have a parent interact, because it helps a child develop their imagination and aids in vocal development.
To this day, there are some things my son just doesn’t have much interest in, but by letting him explore on his own, I have a much better idea of where his talents lie and what he might need some help with in the future. Not to mention, some of his independent creations are just priceless. When we made a little pig craft at the library during storytime, he worked completely on his own and put the pig’s face on perfectly, except upside-down. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen!
Kids will get there, and by going at their own pace they’ll do so in a way that is fun for them instead of irritating, boring or stressful. Just give it time! 🙂
I’m not sure what we do for structured play, but we do a fair bit of playing with Playmobil sets (farm, pyramid, airplane) and there are lots of tea parties and games of “night-night” with the kid who just turned two. We also play a lot of hide-and-seek these days with the 4.5 year old. But most of their games involve building a fort & playing house, or loading up backpack full of a random assortment of toys because they’re “going hiking & are going to stay on the mountaintop for a whole year”.
My daughter would love to build things with these Duplo blocks. Thanks for the giveaway.
I don’t do structured playtime with my 17 months old. He loves to stack blocks, rings, cds – whatever he can find. He’s bad at playing by himself, he wants me to be with him or at least in the room. Even if he’s into his toys and I get up to go somewhere, he’ll follow me immediately. I think he’d love the Lego Duplo! Hopefully it’ll distract him for a while.
I stay at home with our 2 year old so we always have time for structured play together :o)
I have never been big on structured play time in my home. As some have already said, I include my children in every day types of things. We also like to go on a lot of walks where we stop to learn about everything along the way. Of course we do find time to play together but we do not do it every day at a certain time every day or anything. I do it with them when the opportunity arises.
We don’t do structured play, my daughter is an only child but wants company. The company ends up being me even when I don’t have time for her. I’d like her to play more on her own but most of the time she just want to do what I’m doing. Even to do a puzzle which she can do on her own she wants someone there doing it with her. She doesn’t have Lego’s at home but when a doctor’s office has them she really loves just sitting on the floor and building. I think this would be a great toy for her.
We don’t do structured play, my daughter is an only child but wants company. The company ends up being me even when I don’t have time for her. I’d like her to play more on her own but most of the time she just want to do what I’m doing. Even to do a puzzle which she can do on her own she wants someone there doing it with her. She doesn’t have Lego’s at home but when a doctor’s office has them she really loves just sitting on the floor and building. I think this would be a great toy for her.
My children know to spend a certain amount of time in their playroom – to play, not to watch t.v. After they play with their toys, or draw/paint/make crafts, they may either watch some t.v. or play outside. It’s definitely loosely structured, because there is always other things that are going on in our household, friends popping by, family outings, get togethers and other committments. Structured play dioesn’t always work like clock-work, but I think a little bit of structure in a child’s life is a positive thing and I try to do it whenever it’s possible.
my daughter is also miss independant but we read before bed which she loves and there are a couple times a week we have set aside for playing together!
Structured play became important to me when my son was diagnosed with a speech impediment and I had to work with him every day to correct it. It was hard at first but became second nature when we fit it into our routine everyday.
lego i love it still at my age i find myself sitting with my kids playing for hours lol im so glad they love it just as much as i do….i even have travel packs for each age of my children so when we go places they can play with there lego
I also don’t do a lot of structured play, and I am a childcare provider! The children learn basic skills by doing ‘grown up’ things like baking, tidying up, putting on coats and shoes etc. They learn the play skills from each other.
We’d sure love those duplo blocks here!
I think that you should consider your motivation.
Sometimes I find the doctors questions leading into something bigger… so they are not really asking if he is stacking blocks, they are asking about the state of his small motor control, his hand eye coordination and his interest in using toys in a typical way.
I’m a early childhood educator for 10 years and I understand a little bit about what they are trying to get at but even with my understanding of child development I still look at them with suspicious eyes now that I have my own (just turning 3).
I recently had to say no to ‘can he dress himself?’ and then quickly added ‘but he can undress himself and put on slip on shoes’. He nodded as if he didn’t care, it was mostly just a checklist assessment of general development.
Structured playtime is not the answer, but perhaps intentional playtime is. Teaching him to stack blocks and to do things that others expect is possible but I think what you are really interested in is making sure he is on track. I assure you that his ability to play is natural and normal and requires very little structure, support is another matter entirely. You will find the most success if you tune into his needs and his interests and just meet him 1/2 way for most things instead of trying to fulfill some kind of typical checklist of play.
If you would like to find some structured social situations I would try finding something casual and open ended. He’s an independent player so I would suggest finding social activities where he can observe and interact without being forced into a lot of group play scenarios (walking clubs, playgroups for under 5s etc). Playschool is always great, you might want to check into Montessori schools. It sounds like it would suit his temperament (I recommend this knowing it’s not for me… I’m a Reggio girl all the way with a very different personality on my hands).
I would also engage in things like making playdough or painting a picture together and then letting him have his space. You might want to consider putting on a puppet show (use a children’s book you like and just read a-long with paper puppets… sock puppets or finger puppets). To help the language thing seem less silly and to see how he reacts. As for stacking and such… check out wedgits. They are a great open ended toy that encourage a variety of manipulations and if you watch him with these toys you may get some insight into where he is at with his hand-eye coordination. I actually bought the soft vinyl ones and put them in the tub. That way I could introduce the possibilities and really observe him (plus it’s a great place for sitting still). Paiting in the tub is a great way to avoid mess by the way.. just tape up some paper before running the water.
Anyway just some thoughts… don’t worry about it too much. If the doctors have any concerns they will recommend an assessment and that will either lead to more resources or some reassurance. All kids do things differently and if you see your personality reflected in your child then you are in a good position to really support his particular developmental interests. Trust him to show you what he wants to do and then look for ways to enrich the play.
I never did a lot of “structured play”… or at least, I never really called it that. What I DID do, however, was involve her a lot in everyday real life. What I was doing, she was watching or having her own participation in. If I was making bread, she got a blob of dough to play with. If I was shopping, she was in the basket and later walking alongside “helping.” From birth I had a ban on “baby talk,” so that all she heard was real language. TV choices were limited but freely available even at a young age because while they don’t “need” a lot of TV, it is a useful tool when you as the parent use discretion about the content. Reading together at naptime – the same book every day for months, I might add. LOL Kids’ CDs playing in the car. Spending lots of time in the company of mixed ages is important, not just time with other kids, so that they pick up words from adults. Ask questions, offer choices, label things. “Are you ready to get dressed? Do you want the red shirt or the blue one? I think the red one.” Whether he answers or not isn’t important, it’s just modeling language.
Good luck!
My two youngest children had significant speech delays.
Structured play began out of necessity, words were like gold in our home. My daughter would use word substitution Mao was Mommy and Hanh was the word for pink.. THE LIST WAS CRAZY..
Our speech therapist suggested sign language and it was the absolute best thing for family. Signing Time’s Rachel became a ROCKSTAR in our home. We would use the flashcards as a game and sing and sign the songs from her show. Play guess that sign, where they had to TELL me the sign was I had just done. It was structured and encouraged them both to use the correct word for an object.
My daughter is now 7 and my son 5, and they both remember most of the basic signs.
Good Luck!
Michelle