Manipulative Play in Early Childhood: Go-To Activities with Amazing Benefits
Key Points
- Manipulative play is a type of play where children use their hands, fingers, and wrists to grasp, twist, place, push, or pull small objects or toys.
- Benefits of manipulative play include development of fine motor and problem-solving skills while building attention span, confidence, and persistence.
- Caregivers can promote manipulative play by matching activities to a child’s interests and skill level and focusing on effort over success.
Manipulative play is a type of play where children use their hands, fingers, and wrists to move and place small objects or toys.
Children problem-solve through actions such as grasping, pushing, and pulling to meet specific goals or outcomes, such as solving a puzzle, completing a shape sorter, stacking a block tower, or untying a knot.
As a developmental therapist, I’m always watching for opportunities to include manipulative play ideas at home and in the classroom.
Manipulative Play Examples
Favorite Materials
- Playdough, slime, clay, foam
- Stringing beads
- Peg boards
- Pop beads
- Pop tubes
- Shape sorters
- Magnet blocks
- Using tweezers
- Sensory bins
- Bead maze
- Stacking objects
- Fidget toys
- Process art
- Puzzles
- Lacing cards
- Sorting loose parts
- Scoop and pour activities with water, sand, beans, rice, water beads
- Container play
- Tearing paper
Manipulative Play Skills
Manipulative play is key in building fine motor strength and dexterity. However, it also benefits children’s overall development.
- Fine Motor Skills: Strengthens hand muscles and develops dexterity, wrist flexibility, and hand-eye coordination
- Problem Solving: Encourages children to think critically and plan to solve problems and complete tasks through trial and error
- Attention Span: Provides fun opportunities for children to focus on a task for increasing periods of time
- Persistence: Encourages children to keep trying when things don’t work as planned
- Confidence: Allows children to master new skills, boosting their self-esteem
- Creativity: Allows children to build skills to follow their imagination, creativity, and ideas
Stages of Early Manipulative Play
Like block play, manipulative play develops in stages. Each stage reflects children’s fine motor skill level. By understanding these stages, caregivers can offer appropriate activities for each child’s development.
#1 Reach, Grasp, and Release
At the foundational stage, babies learn to reach for, grasp, and release objects.
- Reaching for toys
- Container play
- Heuristic play
- Treasure baskets
#2 Stacking and Manipulation
As toddlers become more confident and skilled, they will be more active and imaginative in how they explore objects.
- Wooden blocks
- Magnatiles
- Megabloks
- Sensory bins
- Chunky puzzles
- Knob puzzles
- Shape sorters
- Peg boards
- Placing stickers
#3 Precision and Control
As older toddlers and preschoolers refine their skills, they demonstrate more control and precision during manipulative play.
- Lacing cards
- Stringing beads with pipe cleaners or shoelaces
- Peg puzzles
- Insert puzzles
- Easy jigsaw puzzles
- Pop beads
- Duplos
- Legos
- Peeling stickers
- Construction-style blocks
By recognizing and supporting children at each manipulative play stage, parents and teachers can nurture fine motor skills. Our goal is to match activities to a child’s interests and skill level.
Tips for Parents and Teachers
- Offer Variety: Use different types of manipulatives to capture children’s imagination or connect to a favorite interest. Offer manipulatives that give children both a challenge and a feeling of success.
- Blocks
- Loose parts
- Nature objects
- Focus on Effort: Celebrate effort and persistence, as well as children’s success. Praising the process inspires children to keep trying through struggles.
- Include Open-Ended Play: Offer open-ended manipulative play opportunities. Loose parts and themed treasure baskets are great ways to add a touch of magic to fine motor play.
- Promote Problem Solving: Model solutions and guide children through the problem-solving process. Overcome frustrations with strategies such as taking a break, asking for new ideas, or trying a different approach.
Manipulative play is an important part of early childhood development. This type of play helps children build fine motor skills, creativity, and cognitive abilities.
For more insights into various types of play, be sure to check out my ultimate guide to different types of play!
