Investigative Play

With investigative play children explore their environments and learn from them. Children are naturally curious, from a young age you will see a child turn an object in her hands, try to squish it, put it in her mouth and spend a long time studying it. This is a form of investigation play. The child is investigating the object and learning about it.

As children get older they investigate their entire world and learn with play. They learn very quickly and we should try to keep their environment as stimulating as possible.

Lots of toddler toys are designed especially for investigative learning such as building blocks, shape sorters, shakers that make different sounds, soft toys with different textures and so on.

Again this type of play can overlap and aid in the development of other types of play like active play that develops a child’s motor skills.

Playing with and creating food dishes is a very good way to encourage investigative play. Two sites that have lots of childrens recipes are www.cake-baker.com and www.homemade-food-recipes.com

For more information on children's play Click investigative play