The Importance of Playing with Same-Age Peers
Starting next week, my daughter will start attending a Parents-Morning-Out program in our community for one morning a week. I was very excited as we met her teacher this morning and had a tour of the ‘classroom’. It was beautifully filled with play-doh, toys, books, and most of all, love! I almost cried when I saw a little cubby with Grace’s name already on it! My baby!
As many of you know and some of you first-time readers don’t, my daughter is now two and half years old and I have had the honor and hard work of staying home with her full-time. I felt in my heart it was time for her to start getting some consistent same-age peer interaction in her life.
O.K., what do I really mean? I mean I knew it was time for Grace to start learning how to negotiate life with kiddos her own age. It’s an important part of a child’s developmental process to be involved in play with children their own age.
If your child is only surrounded by adults or older children, the adults or older children will usually concede or give in to a two year while playing with them. Or, if your child is only surrounded by significiantly younger children, your toddler can easily and readily dominate the situation.
Same-age play and interaction is vital for your little one in order for him or her to develop turn-taking skills, sharing, and basic ‘negotiating’ skills. After all, speech and language is not just about how we pronounce words or put them together in a sentence, but how we use that language to accomplish things in our environment. And for those of you who have toddlers, you know they are very determined to accomplish things in their environment!
Anyway, just wanted to encourage you parents out there to get your children involved in play groups or mommy groups or whatever kind of opportunity you can find that will allow your children the opportunity to play with other kids their own age…it’s so important!
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