Symbolic Play

Speech and language therapy

﻿Hello everybody, my name's Emma, and welcome to today's lesson. I'm really looking forward to today's session, and I hope you are too. But before we get started, just a quick reminder. We here at Oak are trying to support any approaches you might already be using and any work that you might have already been set. We know this lesson is going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure or have questions, then please contact your usual speech and language therapy team, or your child's school. In today's lesson, I'll be talking about symbolic play. And, together, we'll do some thinking about why symbolic play is so important to your language and communication development. There's going to be lots of opportunity for play through this lesson. And then whilst we're playing, I'll be setting the adults some activities so that they can help you to get the most out of your play time together. So, for today's session, you'll need a Dolly or a Teddy, it's up to you. You also need a plastic cup, a hairbrush, and a spoon. Adults, you'll need some writing equipment and the downloadable resources available on the Oak website with this lesson. So before we begin, find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Turn off any distractions or notifications that you might have running on the device that you're using for this lesson. And then make sure that both you and your adult are seated comfortably. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay, let's start by doing some talking and thinking about symbolic play. In early play, children develop a basic understanding of objects by exploring them. They learn that toys can be symbols for other things. For example, you might see a child beginning to use a Lego brick as a phone, or a doll or a Teddy could be a pretend person. Children, we're going to have five minutes of play. It's time to gather up either Dolly or Teddy. Adults, bring along some everyday objects to this play. For example, a cup and a spoon. There are more ideas in the downloadable resources, though. Introduce these objects into play with your Teddy or Dolly. Adults, we're going to use this opportunity to stop, look, and listen to what the child is doing. Are they able to relate the objects to Teddy or Dolly? Once you've had five or 10 minutes playing with Dolly or Teddy and these objects, come back to the video and press play, and we'll continue. Before we get going, just take a moment to reflect. Adults, was the child able to use the everyday objects with Dolly or Teddy? When you're ready, let's begin. Children need to experience symbolic play, because it helps them to understand that something can represent something else. Words are the ultimate symbolic representation of objects. So symbolic play is really important for that reason. When a child is playing symbolically, it means they are ready to deal with more symbols in their world, more words. We can encourage symbolic play by taking the same strategies that we've been working on over the last few lessons. We as adults need to stop, look and listen to really observe our children. And this will help us to provide the right kind of input and support to guide them to develop their play. We need to be looking whether the child is secure with their object play. Can they explore the object and use it on themselves? If they can't demonstrate the use of the object on themselves, then you can go back to lesson three, and have a look at some of the strategies for developing object play. When we're in the place where we're ready to work towards symbolic play, we can show the child how to act out every day situations using their toys as symbols. We can use a few key words to label and comment through this play. And we can also continue to make sure that we're using lots of enthusiasm and excitement in our voice to really capture and model attention. So now it's time for a little bit more play. Children, gather up Dolly or Teddy. Adults, we're going to use this time to follow our child's lead and model some everyday use of objects with Dolly or Teddy. Show the child how to use the objects to act out every day events. For example, if the child is playing with Teddy, you could model feeding Teddy with a spoon, or putting Dolly to bed, or having a drink. See the downloadable resource for more examples of types of things that you could model through your early symbolic play with your child. When you've had five or 10 minutes of this, come back to the video and press play, and we'll continue with the rest of the lesson. So before we begin, just take a moment to reflect. Adults, how did the child respond when you offered these models? When you've gathered your thoughts, press play to continue. Adults, now that you've had some time to model some symbolic play, let's have a think about whether we can build a sequence of symbolic play. Show the child how to act out one or two steps of an everyday event. For example, brushing Dolly's hair and washing Dolly's face. See the downloadable resource for more examples of sequences of symbolic play that you could model with your child. When you've had five to 10 minutes of this, come back to the video and press play and we'll continue. The downloadable resource has lots of ideas for how you can develop and extend symbolic play at home. Don't forget to continue to use the communication checklist to help promote your communication skills so that they're scaffolding your child to show as much engagement in symbolic play as possible. Use the resources to record and reflect on how your child is engaging and progressing with their play. And don't forget, always try and have the most fun that you can possibly have through all of your play opportunities. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson. A really big well done for all the fantastic early symbolic play that you've achieved today. I've got two final things I'd like you to do now. Adults, the first thing is I'd like you to look back on some of your notes and have a think about the important things that you've learned today. Second, if you're able to, I'd like you to take a picture of some of the objects that you've been learning to use on Dolly or Teddy and record this in your playtime diary in the downloadable resources attached. Ask your parent or carer to share this with your teacher at school so that they can see the fantastic progress that you're making with your play skills. And if you'd like, you could ask your parent or carer to send a picture of your playtime record book to @OakNational on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook so I can see your lovely progress too. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you, but take care and enjoy the rest of your learning, bye bye.

Symbolic Play

Symbolic Play

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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