OPINION
Embracing au naturel play
Early years lecturer Bernadette Burnett explains why children should take a break from plastic toys and reap the benefits of natural materials instead
Natural materials such as paper and cardboard offer children myriad play opportunities and can be real treasures when it comes to exploring, because they encourage little ones to use their imagination and create their own play. A cardboard box can be a boat, a train, a car or a den, for example! A pinecone can be a dancer in a ballgown!
Nature's gifts
Natural materials are nature’s gifts that can keep on giving, in terms of meaningful play experiences for babies and young children.
Cardboard toilet roll tubes, wooden spoons, wooden pegs, pinecones, large smooth stones (only for older children who won’t put them in their mouths), metal spoons, scraps of material can all prove fascinating for little hands and minds.
Natural play the 'Heuristic' way
Babies and toddlers’ senses benefit from exploring natural materials independently.
Playing in this way is often referred to as Heuristic play. The term ‘Heuristic play’ was coined by child psychologist Elinor Goldschmied in the early 1980s and is the process of babies and young children exploring the properties of real world ‘objects’ made from natural materials.
By giving young children first-hand play experiences that encourage them to play ‘autonomously’, they can make decisions and enjoy investigating an array of natural objects with their senses.
This in turn can result in the children responding to the feel and textures of natural objects in ways that come naturally to them – and it can be wonderful to watch their reactions to new sensations.
Shared play experiences
Providing opportunities to play with natural materials is cost effective and could result in a wonderfully shared enriching play experience for young children, particularly if different groups can swap and share natural materials they have.
Ideas for games include:
- peek-a-boo with pieces of material.
- a puppet show out of wooden spoons with faces drawn on and material attached as clothing.
- a simple memory game using boxes or baskets to hide small natural objects.
Some ideas for games that encourage shared play for toddlers and young children:
- counting objects
- making dens from cardboard boxes
- using wooden brushes to brushing/ grooming hair in a pretend hairdresser
Making treasure baskets or boxes
‘Treasure baskets’ make for a great activity. The idea is that you fill the ‘basket’ with safe, natural materials and objects (make sure there are no choking hazards) that babies and young children can explore independently.
Here are some examples of what can be included to start you off:
- non-sharp items of cutlery
- metal or wooden cooking utensils
- cardboard egg boxes
- various types of recycled paper and card
- fleecy pieces of material
- woollen items such as hats
- citrus fruits
- leather items such as a purse
- large shells
- metal keys
- bathing and grooming goodies made from natural materials such as loofahs, nail brushes and hairbrushes
These objects and materials will require regular safety checks and cleaning or discarding, where necessary, for hygiene purposes. Rotating the contents to keep little ones interested is important, too.
Nature may not be for everyone...
It’s important to consider that some children will not enjoy this type of play. We, as adults, tend not to enjoy the feel and texture of things at times – and the same can be true of some babies or young children.
However, if a child is completely averse to sensory play with various natural materials, it’s worth keeping an eye on this as they grow and develop, and talking to families if you feel it’s necessary.
The key things to remember when it comes to natural materials for play are that variety is important and to let the children lead with their imagination!