An article on the community playthings.com website addresses understanding and encouraging toddler play.

The article, written by Kay Albrecht, Ph.D. president of Innovations in Early Childhood Education in Houston, Texas, an ECE author and educator, outlines the work of Jean Piaget, Mildred Parten and Lev Vygotsky, each of whom describe play in different ways, but all three useful in understanding observations of children’s play.

Piaget’s Play Behaviour Theory looks at types of play behaviour – “practice play”, “symbolic play”, and “play with rules”. Parten’s stage theory addresses the ways children interact with each other, moving from “parallel play” to “associative play” and finally to “cooperative play”. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory focuses on children’s use of language to socially construct what they know, including the idea of the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), the range of tasks a child can do with help but cannot do on their own.

Albrecht notes that these ideas are helpful in understanding how children play at different stages of development:

Toddlers are very capable of playing with intensity and creativity but the way they play is different from older children. They play in the moment, with the ideas that come to them from their experience or the environment. This play isn’t as recognizable as the socio-dramatic play of preschoolers. They may use one object to serve as another, get distracted from what they are playing when they discover a new prop or toy, or stop to watch others in mid-play. They pick up on others’ play ideas to make them uniquely their own. Although older toddlers are very interested in what other children are doing, much of toddler play is done alone, even if the classroom is full of children. And toddler play is highly repetitive. In fact, it is repetition that helps children understand and remember what they learned and recall and use it later. Toddler play can be remarkably sophisticated and provides us with insight into their thinking.

Toddlers are fascinated by other children and find watching their activities highly engaging and entertaining. Yet the ability to play with other children is just emerging—and needs support and encouragement from the trusted adults in their lives. When toddlers play, they subtly adjust the way they play to the play of their friends to keep the play going—an early indicator that they understand how others are feeling.

Toddlers love to role-play. They actually become the mommy or daddy or the growling bear, rather than acting like them, as they make use of the play props provided. Toys that are real items from the child’s world (purses, wallets, pots, pans, clothes, shoes, hats) are intriguing and support beginning role-play efforts. Toddler play needs these props—they invite children to play and give them ideas about where to start. Carefully plan the classroom to take maximum advantage of toddlers’ natural desire to explore and learn. Create a play environment that offers children interesting places to play, both alone and with their friends. Watch out for both over-stimulation and under-stimulation. Over-stimulation can occur from too much noise, light, color, and activity. Under-stimulation can occur from too few options or too little support for play by caring adults.

Toddlers have “limited skills in controlling impulses, delaying gratification, using expressive language, entering play, reading social cues, and regulating emotions”. Albrecht suggests that a caring adult’s engagement with young children, especially when there are peers involved, helps them play successfully and learn to be a friend. “Open-ended questions such as, ‘Where are you taking the baby for a walk?’ and ‘How will you build the house?’ give toddlers opportunities to add to and elaborate on the play experiences they are having.”

The author concludes that “the understanding of how they can impact and interact with objects and others” that toddlers gain through play is foundational in building a basis for successful relationships and learning as they continue through life, and that the support parents and caregivers can give is a significant contribution to this development.