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Creative play is a crucial aspect when it comes to children's overall growth and development. Creative play has a large effect on the social development domain because it involves overall interaction with peers, therefore working on children's social skills. This gives children the opportunity to navigate various social settings and creates an understanding of how to interact with others. Another domain that creative play effects is emotional development because it allows for children to work on properly managing their emotions when working with others. Obviously, creative play also has a large effect on physical development because play often involves things such as picking up toys, running, jumping, and moving objects. All of movements help for children to develop their motor skills properly. Creative play also stimulates cognitive development because it allows for children to think critically, and problem solve without them even realizing. The last domain that creative play experiences play a role in is language development. Play obviously involves communication between individuals, which enhances language and listening skills. Creative play also is crucial for sensory development of children. During play, children touch different textures, hear different sounds, and see different colors through playing with various objects. Therefore, engaging in these creative activities is extremely important for various aspects of development, and can therefore enhance development more than most people can imagine.

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Resources and Materials for Caregivers Families

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Resources and Materials for Caregivers Families

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This is an extremely helpful website for caregivers and families because it not only explains the importance of creative play, but it also provides examples of activities for infants and children to do in order to help them engage in developmental domains through play. Some examples of creative activities include building which definitely encourages the physical domain. Building blocks, Legos, or anything of the support are great ideas for caregivers to support their children to do in order to promote physical development. Another activity the website promotes is singing and dancing, which encourages the language and physical domains of development. It is obvious that dancing promotes physical development, and the act of singing can help children become familiar with language and different lyrics. Another activity discussed reading or storytelling, which obviously encourages the cognitive domain. This is clearly a great resource for caregivers and can be very beneficial when thinking of activities to promote children's development through play.

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Imagine you give a set of random objects to your child and she plays with it for a good amount of time. Long enough you could get things done or long enough to keep her quiet while baby naps.
And what if ... you can get the same effect every time you need your child entertained?

Yes, it is possible.

And the best part, these are super efficient alternatives for screen time.
So if your children are often bored and get to use screens for entertainment, then continue reading.

You may be surprised how easy is to set up screen-free activities without any special 'creative skills' or expensive supplies.

So, yes, creative play is a simple solution for boredom and a great alternative for screen-time.

Creative play is any activity that includes expressing a child's creativity and imagination.

Creative play is often hidden behind the term open-ended play or open-ended activities. Meaning, that is a kind of a play doesn't have a specific end outcome or result. The end result can be anything your child creates.

What is important to know, opposite to common beliefs, children don't need to be entertained. If you give them the right setting, designated space and time, they will figure out what to do on their own. Play is something kids love to do by their nature.
Children love being creative if they're given the chance.
Why is creative play important for children?

Creative play foster creativity and imagination in young kids. Encouraging creative play activities you are actually developing a love of the creative process in your child that will set excellent foundations for being a creative thinker and open-minded human.

Creative play activities are simple, yet, bring many benefits to a child:

encourages creativity

boost imagination

help in fine motor development

improves logical thinking

expands vocabulary

stimulates senses

has learning through play element

Encouraging creativity in your child doesn't need to be expensive, but it is important that you have some basic equipment available and/or that fit child's developmental milestones

Things like crayons, paints, colored paper, scissors, and glue should be basics in your creative play box, but there are literally hundreds of other things you can include as well. In our family, our favorite are household objects, like paper cups, paper plates, cupcake liners, and all the recyclables from our recycling bin.
Also, drama, music and dance require a very little of supplies.

This post may contain affiliate links.

What are the creative play activities?

Building

Arts (exploring different tools, elements, techniques, and different art supplies)

Drawing

Painting

Collaging or just experimenting with combining different elements

Dancing

Singing

Playing instruments

Imaginative and role play also called pretend play

Gardening

Baking

Household chores (there is no child who doesn't wanna try to mimic their parent doing house chores)

As you can see, creative play can be anything from drawing or building to dancing or baking. Really, any activity that is engaging a child's creativity, encouraging experimenting, developing skills, learning and/or stimulating senses.
Inviting children to express their creativity with different tools brings their imagination and creativity on a surface.

So next time when you are tempted to pull out screen for entertainment, pull out this list of creative play ideas and you will finally be able to get some stuff done while your child is doing they job - playing.

If you find this useful, please take a moment and share it with other parents who may struggle with finding alternatives for screen-time.

Lily Zunic

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Creative Play In Children: What is it and why is it important

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Imagine you give a set of random objects to your child and she plays with it for a good amount of time. Long enough you could get things done or long enough to keep her quiet while baby naps. And what if ... you can get the same effect every time you need your child entertained?

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Resources and Materials for Caregivers and Families

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Resources and Materials for Caregivers and Families

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This is another resource that can be very helpful for parents and caregivers of children who are developing. Most websites explain very broad activities that children can do to meet the various domains of development through play, however this site has very specific ideas that promote children's development. For example, some ideas they include are decorating a cardboard box, which involves helping the development of motor skills. Another example is going on a nature walk, involving physical development and cognitive development (identifying different animals and plants). All of these activities are very original and great ideas when parents seem to run out of the generic ways of play for their children. Overall, this resource helps for parents to think outside of the box to best promote their child's development.

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Creative activities: why they're important for preschooler learning and development

The preschool years can be a very creative time. Creative activities like drama, music, dance, art and craft are great for learning and development in these years. They can help preschoolers:

develop imagination and creativity

build confidence

understand and express emotions

learn about the world and their place in it

communicate thoughts, experiences or ideas

practise and improve social skills

practise and improve fine motor skills, gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination

build vocabulary and memory

practise decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Encouraging preschoolers to enjoy creative activities

Preschoolers like to be spontaneous, so it's good to follow your child's lead with creative activities. The key is for your child to explore their own creative interests and express themselves, so see what your child wants to do before you suggest something.

Sometimes your child might need some extra help or encouragement. Or your child might want you to join in the fun! By being actively involved, you can develop your child's skills and understanding. Being creative and playing with your child is also good for your relationship.

When you're doing a creative activity with your child, it's good to show your child how there's more than one way to do something. For example, you can ask questions like 'How many ways can you draw a person?' or 'Show me how many sounds you can make with the drum'. This encourages your child to enjoy being creative rather than trying to do something 'right' or make something perfect.

You can also ask your child questions about their thinking and problem-solving processes. For example, 'Tell me about what's happening in your picture' or 'How did you attach the feather to the cardboard?'

Whatever creative ideas your child comes up with, give your child plenty of descriptive praise. For example, 'I love the picture you drew. You really know how to put colours together'. This boosts your child's confidence and encourages them to keep exploring their creativity.

Art and craft: creative activities for preschoolers

Preschoolers love to express themselves and their ideas using crayons, paints, playdough, clay, scissors, glue and paper.

Your child will begin making basic shapes and might enjoy experimenting with texture, space and colours. For example, preschoolers often draw houses with shining suns above the roof. This is because this kind of picture is made up of basic shapes like squares, triangles and circles.

Here are ideas to get you started on art and craft activities with your toddler:

Keep a 'busy box' of new and recycled play materials like string, paper scraps, patty pans, paddle pop sticks, stickers and straws. Your child can use these materials to make whatever they want.

Give your child an empty cardboard box to decorate. They might make a house, a robot, a truck, an animal - whatever they're interested in.

Use empty kitchen rolls, small plastic juice bottles or old gloves or socks to make puppets.

Go on a nature walk to look for natural materials to make art. For example, your child can use these to draw, make a collage or nature doll or dip into paint.

Use apps or computer programs to make digital art. For example, there are apps for free drawing or arranging photos into collages.

Create a home art gallery for your child's artwork. A kitchen wall or pinboard is ideal for sticking up pictures and paintings. You could ask your child to choose one special painting each week to frame in the centre of the gallery. This shows that you value your child's creations.

Drama: creative activities for preschoolers

Preschoolers often use songs and stories as the basis for dramatic activities. One moment they're a crocodile eating chickens, and the next they're Mook Mook the owl!

Preschoolers often get completely involved in stories too. For example, when you read your child a story, you might notice them moving their arms, legs or face and miming what's happening in the story.

Drama and storytelling also give your child opportunities to build and practise vocabulary and learn about the structure of stories. And when your child acts out roles like a caring nurse, they see the world from someone else's point of view. This helps them build empathy.

Here are some drama activities to spark your child's interest and imagination:

Start a dress-up box or bag. Use old clothes or find cheap and unusual clothes and props at op-shops.

Put on a puppet show or do other kinds of puppet play. You could even use a cardboard box to create a puppet theatre.

Pitch a tent in your backyard and pretend to go on a camping adventure.

Act out things from daily life. It could be going to the shops, being a pet or zoo animal, driving a bus and so on.

At story time, encourage your child to act out roles from a story with movements or sounds. For example, your child could pretend to be one of the monsters from Where the wild things are.

Video your preschooler as they play. Help them use a movie-making app to create a special video to share with family and friends.

It's good to include some 'art appreciation' in your child's life. Why not visit a local art exhibition or see a multicultural or Aboriginal dance or theatre performance together and talk about your favourite parts?

Music, sound, movement and dance: creative activities for preschoolers

Preschoolers usually enjoy singing. They love songs with repetition and simple melodies. They can make up their own words to familiar songs, and words often come from the events and people around them.

Your child can usually recognise and name favourite songs and sing parts of them. Singing helps children understand the differences between fast and slow, long and short, high and low, and loud and soft.

Your child might make up actions and dance moves to go along with music. Other times you might find them flying like a butterfly, creeping like a caterpillar or hopping like a frog.

Movement with music is also good for releasing energy and emotions. For example, your child might jump for joy or stamp angrily.

These ideas can get your child singing, dancing and moving creatively:

Make some homemade instruments. For example, a saucepan, a saucepan lid and a wooden spoon can become a drum kit.

Point out sounds with steady beats, like a ticking clock or a dripping tap. Encourage your child to clap, tap, march or bang to the beat.

Watch short videos of animals making noise and moving in the wild. Your child could make a drum sound like a plodding elephant or a shaker sound like a slithering snake. Or they might enjoy dancing like a silly monkey.

Listen to the musical pieces Peter and the wolf or The carnival of the animals, which use the sound of different instruments to represent different animals. Guess what animal the music is representing and try to copy the sounds.

Sing songs, chants and rhymes like 'Incy wincy spider', 'Heads and shoulders', 'Frère Jacques' or 'The wonky donkey'. Can't remember the words? Try our Baby Karaoke.

Diversity in play is good for children. It helps children learn about people from diverse backgrounds, avoid stereotypes and understand equality. For example, you could encourage children of all genders to dress up as nurses or builders. Or choose stories or songs from diverse cultures or languages.

Creative activities for preschoolers with diverse abilities

You can adapt creative activities to suit preschoolers with diverse abilities. For example, if your child:

needs help with creative play skills, you could model simple actions - for example, show your child how to growl like a monster or bang a drum, or break down the activity into easier steps, or use written or picture instructions to help your child understand what to do

has sensory sensitivities, give your child tools to touch things like playdough, play music more quietly or introduce new textures and colours slowly

has vision impairment or fine motor difficulties, use larger materials and tools - for example, make collages with large oak leafs instead of petals, or use chunky crayons instead of pencils

has a lot of energy, encourage bigger movements like jumping, swaying arms, stretching, crouching or shaking

has limited mobility, collect play materials for your child and put them within easy reach.

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Creative activities for preschooler learning and development

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Preschoolers develop through creative activities like drama, art, craft, music and dance. Let your child lead creative play and encourage them with praise.

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Supporting Children with Special Needs Through Play

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Supporting Children with Special Needs Through Play

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Creative play is obviously extremely important for all children, even students with special needs, so this is a resource that gives parents and caregivers some ideas to promote play in adaptive ways. This site includes the fact that you should promote play just about the same for children with special needs, just with few adaptations, such as guiding them, talking them through activities, and maybe even showing them examples on how to participate in play before they do. It is so important to include all children of different abilities, including special needs, in play. This resource is a great way to make all students of different abilities to feel involved and able to participate in various play settings. Sometimes, it is just crucial to make slight changes and adaptions for specific students that need it, and this is a great resource that encourages that.

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The benefits of active play for children with special needs are undeniable. Active play not only enhances physical health, but it's just as important for mental health. As a mother of a child with special needs, I always find myself wondering how I can better ensure growth and productivity for my son, Abram. I've found that anything I can do that encourages active play, and pride in doing it well, is when his growth and productivity increase the most.

Abram's therapists taught me so much about how activities that are fun for Abram can also be used to teach and reinforce skill development. I always try to incorporate new forms of active play into his daily routine that help develop gross and fine motor skills as well as teach him how to interact with others. While no two children on the autism spectrum are the same, below are seven activities you might try to encourage active play for your child with special needs.

An "obstacle course"-where you come up with fun challenges your child has to complete to make it through the course-is a great physical activity that's entertaining for kids and packed with benefits. In addition to keeping your child active, it's a great tool to teach them to follow multi-step directions.

How you encourage your child to navigate the course will of course vary based on your child's unique abilities, but here are some of the actions we've used with Abram:

Hop 10 times down the sidewalk

Walk backward around the mailbox

Frog jump five times across front yard

Wheelbarrow (if someone is there to help)

Skip around the house

Somersaults

Spinning

Finish with authentic praise: high-five/chest bump

When the weather keeps us inside, we substitute some activities, such as:

Crab walk down the hall, or try other "walks" you can use with facial expressions, mannerisms and sounds (think: seal crawl, bear walk, frog hop, elephant walk with trunk raising and lowering, and bunny hop)

Lunge walk across the room

Hop on one leg from the bedroom to the kitchen

Walk with flat feet or walk on heels with toes up (this is really beneficial for children with special needs who have a propensity to toe walk)

Obstacle courses are great for providing experience with both verbal and physical connection. For example, you can choose activities that demonstrate the difference between big and small steps. You can teach patience: It's not always about getting somewhere fast, but about how you get there. It's also a great activity for providing proprioceptive input. Proprioception is the ability to sense your body's position and movement in the environment. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder often have difficulty processing proprioceptive information, but these skills can be learned through activities that focus sensations on joints and involve resistance to muscles, such as lifting, pushing and pulling heavy objects, including one's own body weight.

Ready to try an obstacle course with your child? Start with slow, simple steps and practice listening, repeating back and then executing. You can encourage participation by involving your child in choosing the activities or the order in which they'd like to complete them. Once Abram realized he could control this activity, he loved it! Remember your currency-Abram is motivated by excessive praise when he completes a task. Once you work up to obstacle courses that involve multiple steps, you can write them down to help with reading, visualizing words and then even transition them to writing the steps down themselves.

Before Abram was verbal (and as he was emerging verbal), we played rhythm table tap at dinner time: We'd tap our hands on the table with various rhythms and have Abram repeat them. For example: Left, right, left, left with both hands tapping three times. We'd have Abram repeat the taps and follow the same rhythm. The trick is to first demonstrate an easy rhythm and then increase speed, timing and complexity. Ease into tapping by using repetition and a familiar tune or song.

Abram often refuses to eat at the dinner table, but we found that rhythm tapping is fun and gets him to be silly, taking his focus away from refusing to eat. This taught Abram how to stay at the table, which is our family time.

Rhythm tapping teaches skills such as mimicking and repeating learned words or phrases at any given time (otherwise known as echolalia). While these repetitions are typically blurted out at random moments without a clear meaning, children with verbal delay-which includes many children with autism-sometimes use these in an attempt to communicate. Think about babies learning to speak: we say "mama" and hope they'll repeat it. The concept is the same with tapping, with the goal of encouraging interaction and learning.

Group toys or other items based on their similarities. In addition to sorting, this activity teaches association, creativity and labeling. You can try this for kids of all ages with pretty much any toy, and customize categories and level of difficulty based on individual learning needs.

For example, you can ask your child to put all the green items in the box, or pick out all the items shaped like a square. Other example sorting categories include:

Color

Shape

Size

Product (pens, pencils, crayons, etc.)

Things that roll

Pictures-people who are sad, happy, mad, laughing, crying, etc.

Outdoor activities vs. indoor activities

Household products (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, etc.)

Because this game has so many different options and components, start simple. Pick items that are familiar to your child and demonstrate how to match the items. You can let your child be the teacher by allowing them to pick the category, with you as the sorter. This can be as interactive as you'd like.

Classic games such as Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Simon Says, Red Light/Green Light and Uno are all great teaching tools that encourage active play. These games teach children how to follow directions, count, take turns and recognize sounds, colors and numbers.

There can be additional benefits to motor skill development; for a child with gross motor concerns, teaching them how to pick up a card is a huge accomplishment. Another major benefit of these classic games is that they help teach kids how to interact with others, and how to lose gracefully and be a good sport. I have to put my competitive nature aside and sometimes lose on purpose so I can model for Abram how to keep calm when I lose and how to congratulate the winner.

When starting off, you can simplify the rules. For example, we introduced Uno by removing the reverse and wild cards. Once we got the hang of it with the simple number cards, we introduced the complex cards. We even learned how to say the numbers in different languages. Once we found an activity that would hold Abram's attention, we maximized every opportunity to teach a new skill.

Have your child lay face down on the ground. Place a giant exercise ball on top of their legs and then roll on top of the ball. Sounds crazy, right? When this was recommended by one of Abram's therapists, I was terrified to try it. But he absolutely loved it when I laid my entire body weight onto the ball and rolled up the back of his legs and to his back and shoulders. Abram would giggle and then ask me to do it again.

The intense pressure can be calming-just think about when you receive bad news and need a deep bear hug from someone you love. The pressure from a hug is comforting and soothing, which is what this activity mimics. It's perfect to try when your child needs to reset and refocus. By creating external pressure on the muscles, this activity provides sensory input that helps with proprioceptive processing.

We worked our way up to this activity, starting with other weighted pressure techniques. Our therapists had previously introduced weighted lap or shoulder pads, which had a very calming effect on Abram. Knowing that he responded so well to those other techniques, our therapists recommended this as a more interactive approach that would mimic that powerful connection of a bear hug.

Have your child sit in a swing, twist up the rope and then release it so the swing spins. This can be a regular playground swing, therapeutic swing or cloth swing at home-they'll all do the trick!

It may look like it'd be nauseating, but it's actually really calming for some children with special needs. A swing by itself can provide calming pressure and motion for children with sensory processing issues. The added spinning motion creates additional force that can help center and reset their minds. For Abram, the spinning motion brings him back to center and stops the external world from seeming to spin around him.

When trying this out, allow your child to get comfortable in the swing and then start with smaller twists to minimize the speed and number of spins.

Get in a "crab walk" pose-sitting on your butt with your hands and feet underneath you, propping you up off the ground-and put the corner of a small throw pillow in your mouth. Crawl around and try to smack your opponents with the small pillow. If you hit your opponent, you win and get to take their pillow!

It's meant to be a very silly game and can be a great way to ease stress, let loose and have fun. This game always results in happy giggles in our house. It can be a great tool when you need to calm a noisy situation, since it's hard to talk with a pillow in your mouth!

As parents, it's extremely important to observe how your child responds to certain activities. I highly recommend watching and participating in therapy sessions to help guide what activities to introduce, from those that reinforce skills to activities that provide your child with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Encouraging active play can be challenging, but they can also offer wonderful long-term benefits and help our kids continue to grow and develop.
Rose Morris is the founder and president of Abram's Nation. After struggling to find a solution to keep her son Abram, who is on the autism spectrum, safe at night, she designed and developed The Safety Sleeper, the first and only enclosed bed system of its kind. From the flagship Safety Sleeper introduced in 2009, Rose has expanded her innovative product offerings to include durable medical-grade equipment, sensory products and a wearables line of adaptive clothing. She was named Exporter of the Year by the US Small Business Administration in 2017 and accepted a 2018 appointment to the Western Pennsylvania District Export Council. Follow Abram's Nation on Facebook and Instagram.

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How to Promote Active Play for Kids with Special Needs

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Active play offers a bonanza of benefits for children with special needs. Check out these activity ideas that great for boosting physical and mental health, and having fun as a family.