It can seem somewhat useless to try and encourage your child to play, as it’s something that often comes naturally to them and requires no further instruction. However, children who may be particularly shy or unwilling to try something new can find themselves being limited in the value of playtime, that is benefiting from its thorough ability to help us think through problems and become more confident and interested in the world around us.

For this reason, helping your child develop a love for play is a very important task. It pays to introduce them to new items, new concepts, and new hobbies they can love, even if that’s quite simple for now, and even if they’re quite young.

But how should you think about gifting them toys or purchasing their items with a little more substance than the most recent trendy product set? In this post, we’ll discuss a few ways that your child can have more autonomy and begin to love play in all its forms.

Introduce Them To Multiple Play Possibilities

It’s a good idea to help your child have access to many realms of play. From excellent toys such as the Transforming Dizzy at alphatoys.com to helping them enjoy the creative fun and co-operative collectathon video games taking the world by storm (such as the LEGO Star Wars series), a child learns about the world by play, and so they should be able to explore that which feels right to them. This means having fun, and never limiting their options provided they are suitable. This doesn’t mean they have to be spoilt, only that over time, they have access to try a range of different activities. 

Play With Them!

Playing with your child is also a great idea, and they’ll of course love that. Not only does it help you show them the ropes as it were (especially important during collaborative games where sharing and teamwork are needed), but it helps you bond, and you can both create great memories this way. You don’t even need anything too fancy. Going on a bike ride up and down the road can be a great way to play, as can simply throwing a ball around in the garden. This way, you embody play instead of endlessly pushing your child in that direction from a detached perspective.

Encourage Socialization

It can really help a child to become more social through play, and to learn skills through doing that. Perhaps their school has an afterschool arts and crafts club, or maybe you can ask your child’s friend’s parents if they can come to your house for dinner from time to time. This kind of socialization can be tremendously fun and exciting and can help your child develop, become more confident, and generally build memories worth revisiting.

With this advice, we hope the fullest extent of play can help your child develop more readily, no matter how shy they are.

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