Engage young children by participating yourself. The research above suggests that kids get more from block play when someone demonstrates how to build with them. Stimulate pretend play with character toys and other accessories. The experiment on language skills involved giving kids blocks and appropriately-scaled accessory toys, like people and cars. Such toys give kids ideas for construction projects and encourage pretend play. Combine block play with story-time. Researcher Janie Heisner used toy blocks and block- accessories to illustrate parts of the stories she read to kids in a preschool. After each story, the kids were given access to the props. This tactic seemed to increase pretend play. It also gave kids ideas for things to build. Challenge kids with specific building tasks. Free-wheeling block play is important.Kids also reap special benefits from trying to match a structure to a template. To get things started, suggest a type of structure to build. You can use pictures and diagrams to inspire or guide a construction project. Encourage cooperative building projects. As noted above, cooperative building can help kids forge better social skills. Remember that fantasy is a valuable aspect of play. Construction play seems so obviously mechanical, it's easy to think only of the development of practical engineering skills and forget the importance of mind-bending fantasy.
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