image credit: School Girls playing Hopscotch_Cuba 042, via flickr

We all know that children learn all sorts of important skills from playing, but did you know that child’s play is also essential for language development? The truth is that children use play to discover the world around them, develop their imaginations, form bonds with their peers and learn many other important life skills. According to a recent article by Marisa Constantinides for TEFL Matters, there are nine different types of play (conceptual games, visual perceptual tasks, auditory perceptual tasks, fine motor tasks, artistic activities, material play, physical play, representational object play and fantasy play), which all contribute to developing various facets of your child’s language skills. Of course there are specific games which may help parents from bilingual families gently nudge children into using developing language skills in both languages. Here are a few time tested Spanish/English favorites, as well as some more modern ideas, to get you started:

*I Spy/Veo veo: This guessing game reinforces vocabulary and sentence structure by repeating the same little rhyme over and over again with the child. It also teaches deductive reasoning skills and can be played pretty much anytime, anywhere. Older children can play a sort of 20 questions version of this game, in which the child may ask you 20 questions to help narrow down the item you “spied”.

*Mother May I?: This time tested favorite, along with Simon Says and other similar games, teach children how to listen to, give and follow orders. They also teach vocabulary and help develop fine motor skills.

*Songs and Nursery rhymes: Singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes with your children is another great way to reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure. The rhythm and rhyme of this sort of language also makes it easy for children to remember and reproduce. Who doesn’t remember the songs and nursery rhymes of his youth?

*On-line games: For this new tech savvy generation, it’s never to early to play on-line games. There are all sorts of bilingual and language learning websites which can help your child develop their language and technological skills at the same time, and many of them are even free! You can check out a few of our favorite English and Spanish language sites for kids in the Just for Kids! section of our resources page.

We should never underestimate the power of bilingual play for children of all ages, so have a blast!