How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 19 Months – Unstructured Play

Hope you are making the most of your child’s energy at 19 months! In case you missed it, catch up on this series for 19 months here – Fine Motor Skills, Practical Life Activities, Language & Math.

The last but not the least is about unstructured play – allowing the child some free play time leaving him/ her to explore freely.

Why is it important?  

• Builds creativity
• Develops planning and decision making skills
• Develops social skills and independence
• Gives an opportunity to unwind and relax
• Gives total control to the child and helps reduce tantrums

Toy Vegetables – The picture shows my son exploring vegetables. We began with learning their names. Then, he himself wanted to play with them along with his toy kitchen set and a vegetable book too. He matched them to the ones in the book, and pretended to cook in the kadhai. All this play was not my plan, he came up with this on his own. And this is the beauty of unstructured play!

Building Blocks – Hands down, blocks were one of those toys that were played with every single day at this age by my son. Every day, we saw different structures as he manoeuvred with them differently, learning so many skills silently. This used to be his quiet time!

Toy Vehicles – These too, are a constant companion of my son. Your child may have some other favourite. Just let your child immerse in that favourite toy when s/he wants. It is therapeutic for children! During this kind of play, they learn what we can perhaps never teach them explicitly.

In short, you can give your child pretty much anything in the house (of course safe & non-toxic) to explore & let them play with it. Just be a friend/player, not a teacher to tell how to play with that stuff. You will be surprised to see the imagination of your child coming alive every single time!

Next in line will be a bunch of activities for 20 months old toddlers.

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And yes, I love to hear from you so do share how your child responded to these activities and if you are struggling with anything specific.

Enjoy the playtime with your children! These moments don’t last long.

All Images in this article are original and belong to the author. Reproducing them in any form without the permission of the author will not be allowed.

Also read: How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 19 Months – Fine Motor Skills, How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 19 Months – Practical Life Activities, How to Develop Your Child’s Brain: 19 Months – Language & Math

Explore the entire collection of articles: Early Learning & Brain Development 

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