What is play…and why won’t Practically Perfect PT stop talking about it?
Nicole Sturgill, PT, DPT, and Pediatric Program Coordination for Practically Perfect Physical Therapy brings us today’s blog. Nicole writes:
What is play? What does it mean to have play skills? How can play possibly be important? Let’s dive into this topic together!
Play is one of the most essential activities babies do. Through play, babies explore their environment and make sense of new and different information. They figure out how toys work and how their body works through play. Watching a baby discover their hands for the first time is one of the most fascinating events to witness as they figure out what this little body they are in is all about. The experiences babies have during play help strengthen and expand networks of connections in their developing brains.
During the early years, babies’ brains form many more connections than the brain will ever need. Connections used regularly, through play and other experiences, become stronger and branch out into more complex networks. Connections not used regularly are eventually eliminated through pruning (similar to how you prune a plant to promote new growth). Play is crucial for brain development because it gives babies and young children opportunities to experience new things and practice existing skills, which strengthens those connections made and promotes new connections.
Babies learn through exploration, exploring with their hands, feet, and mouths. The more exposure a baby has to different faces, textures, sounds and environments, the more connections will be made in their amazing, growing brain. This is why some infants, babies, and toddlers seek sensory or movement experiences. They are trying to learn all the things in as many ways as they can by looking, listening, touching, and mouthing, to name a few. This explains the oddities like licking something disgusting or trying to eat rocks: they didn’t know how the experience would go and decided to find out!
What does play look like for an infant? Babies start by playing on their back and observing the world around them while figuring out how to move their arms and legs against gravity. Tummy time is another great position for babies to play. In this position, they learn how to pick their head up against gravity, and use their arms to support themselves. Once they figure out both of those positions, next up is to figure out how to move between laying on their back and laying on their tummy. They need motivation to do this: they need toys and textures around them to reach for. Before you know it, your baby will be sitting up and learning how to reach for those toys without falling over!
It seems like movement would be simple, and for some babies it really is. I like to call these kiddos “motor marvels”, they are the babies doing things a week before expected that make all the other parents worry if their baby is behind. For other children, movement may not come as easily and that is okay. As a pediatric therapist with years of experience, I find that children can excel in one area and may struggle in others. When we look at play skills, there are a few different categories. Some include visual and auditory development, gross motor skills (big movements), fine motor skills (small movements), language skills, sensory milestones, feeding benchmarks, and vestibular senses. In order to fully engage in their play environment, a baby must learn to wrangle all of these to have balanced life experiences.
Let’s take rolling as an example. It seems easy enough, right? Just roll over from your belly to your back! But it requires a lot of different systems to interplay. Baby has to lift their head, get their arms and legs in the right position, optimize or override their primitive reflexes, be motivated (looking for fun or straight up MAD), and then put it all together to make it happen. Some babies do it once and go, “Oh hey, that was fun,” or “Cool bruh, I got to this new place.” Others feel rolling from tummy to back was a terrifying fall and refuse to ever go near that movement again. You never know what baby you will get as a parent. Some of us get the cautious little turtles slowly plodding towards movement, and some get the adventurous little hares, racing through their milestones at a breakneck pace.
The other important thing to remember is that not all babies develop at the same rate. You can’t compare to your friend’s kids. You cannot compare your child to a similarly aged family member. You can’t even compare one kiddo to another in the same family. Achievement of milestones and the timing of such is as unique as a fingerprint. There are approximations and ranges for development, and we talk about them a lot in our online course “Baby’s Practically Perfect First Year,” but it is important to remember these are just guidelines and windows.
Practically Perfect Physical Therapy offers something unique to the Atlantic County area. We host weekly classes for babies (and their caregivers) to come learn, play, and interact. If you read through this and thought, “I think we need help,” these classes are for you. If you have been stressing over things like, “Is my baby normal?” and “Should they be doing that?” Also perhaps you may be thinking, “It looks like they’re trying to crawl,but I don’t know what age babies even do that…” Let me say this: please come play with us at a Baby+Me Playskills class. This class is aimed for babies ages 0 – 9 months, and we promise they are fun for caregiver and baby.
You may not be really sure how to motivate your baby to explore their environment. You may be wondering what toys will appeal to your little one at their stage of development. Are you thinking about why your little love bug keeps getting their arm stuck when trying to roll over? Join a baby class led by a pediatric physical therapist that can show you all the tips and tricks to help your growing miracle thrive!
Your baby will benefit from group play with babies their age by watching and demonstrating what they see all around them! Playing starts at birth, and babies love to be surrounded by other babies. Another benefit of baby class, that is just as important, is having other parents in the same season of life to chat with, learn from, and laugh with about all the ups and downs of having a little one under the age of one.
We offer two options for our Baby+Me Playskills classes, including a drop in rate and a deeply discounted monthly package. We want you to come learn with us and we want to help you and your baby in all of the ways possible to help them learn all they can from their surroundings. Sign up for a class today. These also make great gifts for those you know with littles.
