Why is play important?

Play is one of the major occupations of infancy. It teaches the infant many important aspects of the surrounding world including the interactions between objects, people and space. For further information on the importance of play see section in pre-contact information gathering.

Knowledge of normal motor development is an important pre-requisite for providing optimal positioning suggestions for the infant to play and engage.  Working with other members of the multidisciplinary team (i.e. physiotherapists) will enhance your intervention as you collectively work on identified treatment goals.  For infants, the sequence of major play stages, along with the contributing cognitive, fine motor and language components is shown in this Cognitive and Fine Motor Sequences Influencing Infant Play handout.