What is Cooperative Play?
Cooperative Play occurs when children play and are actively engaged with one another in a shared activity. At this stage, children show mutual interest in the activity and each other. Cooperative play development occurs around 4 years old and spans the entire life. This stage typically comes to mind when someone uses the term “play”. As adults, we engage in this cooperative context every single day.
4 Years Old Language Development
In addition to play development; early language development continues into 4 years old. By 4 years old, children will have a variety of communicative intents, an expansive vocabulary (4 year olds often have over 1000 words!), and enjoy playtime activities with preschoolers. 4 year olds answer questions, ask questions, use a variety of word combinations, and participate in simple conversations. They enjoy a variety of simple board games and craft activities for preschoolers. Their literacy skills will begin to develop rapidly; recognizing some letters and numbers, holding books correctly, and enjoy rhyming songs; especially once they begin attending school. Another important factor at this age? Social emotional development and the continued growth of coordination skills and motor development. A lot of development happens in those early childhood years and it often all occurs at once.
Toys for Play Development: 4 Year Olds
When choosing toys for play development in 4-year-olds, you will look for toys that encourage communication and teamwork. At this time, language development in 4-year-olds looks more like “adult language,” if you will. As we discussed in the previous paragraph- 4-year-olds display a more mature form of language than toddlers. As always, our job as grown-ups is to continue to promote and encourage those skills. Regarding speech therapy activities for 4-year-olds, we want to engage and grow their language development, encourage their social-emotional development, and help form their problem-solving skills. This can be done through matching games and pattern activities, puzzles, books about emotions, silly rhyming books, and printable activities! Best part? You can use all the other toys suggested in the previous posts.
At 4 years old, children learn colors and shapes, among other early learning concepts. Check out these preschool colors activities and speech therapy activities for language expansion in one comprehensive resource! These preschool color activities include printable matching games, color sorting activities, vocabulary books for early literacy skills, and so much more…
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