If you ask any adult what a child is most often busy with, the answer can be found without difficulty: playing! A game for a preschooler is not just fun, it is an important and necessary business.
While playing, the kid learns the world, its laws and properties, learns to understand himself and those around him, realizes his capabilities and embodies his dreams. In the process of playing, the child finds a way to release seething energy and express his emotions.
Game content
At the age of 1 - 3 years, gaining greater freedom of movement, the child more and more actively explores the objects that surround him, Finds new ways to manipulate them. But, as a rule, he is already attracted not so much by toys as by objects of the "adult world": dishes, furniture, tools, in a word, everything that other people use.
A child of this age is able to get carried away for a long time "putting things in order" on the shelf. Of course, adults should take care that the cooking utensils that are there are safe for the baby. He can selflessly sort out cereals, pour water from one vessel to another, or arrange a “concert” using pots and lids as a “drum kit”.
And in fact, a new thing appears in the game: the child tries to reproduce the actions of adults already familiar to him, imitating them: he “cooks” dinner, “feeds” the doll, puts it to sleep like a mother; turns the steering wheel of an imaginary car and knocks with a hammer like dad. Such games do not yet have a plot, the child is only trying his hand at adult activities that are not yet available to him.
As a rule, imitative games do not initially differ in richness of plots. An adult will help to diversify them, who will tell you that, for example, a doll can not only be put to bed and fed, but also taken for a walk in a stroller, shown books to her, and a truck can not only drive, but also carry loads, roll animals, move out of slides …
Toys and Substitutes
Here you can no longer do without "accompanying items": doll furniture and dishes, tool kits, a garage for cars, etc., and parents sometimes strive to fill the child's play space with toys that mimic the objects of the adult world as much as possible
A child at this age actively and with pleasure uses substitute items”. So, a garage will completely replace a shoebox, and a “cake” for a doll can be made from several parts of a Lego-type constructor. Therefore, you should not strive to surround the child with a mass of toys that are an exact copy of real objects. The use of substitute items develops the baby's imagination and creativity better.
