Fun activities that are essential for child development

Kids thrive when playing.

Children learn, develop, and have fun through activities, whether played indoors or outdoors.

Playing should be encouraged by parents and carers, as a range of games and activities can benefit their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development.

So if you want to become a professional childcare educator, you need to learn how you can incorporate these sorts of activities to support children reaching their developmental milestones.

Interested in supporting children during their most influential years? Sounds like childcare might be for you! In this blog post, we provide some insight into child development, the importance of learning through play, and how our educators facilitate this critical learning.

Study childcare with Academia

Are you interested to learn where to start when it comes to a fulfilling and rewarding career in childcare? Let Academia become the first stop in your long-term career plans.

Academia offers childcare courses in Brisbane and Melbourne to help you become the best childcare educator that you can be. Create an interactive, enjoyable, and safe environment for children to thrive, and play a critical role in their most impactful years.

Study childcare in Australia with our fully accredited childcare trainers who have more than a decade of childcare experience.

You can also check if you are eligible for government funded courses in Melbourne – thanks to the Skills First initiative, eligible students can study for free!

What activities help child development?

Students enrolled in childcare courses will learn how to facilitate leisure, games, and learning activities in childcare.

Childcare educators need to choose suitable activities for kids to maximise their full potential in each development area.

Strategically planning each activity will contribute to a child’s holistic growth and well-being, during a period that is often touted as a child’s most influential and impressionable years.

We explore five types of activities you can incorporate into your learning curriculum.

1. Cognitive development activities

Cognitive activities enable children to learn, process information, and strengthen their memory. A significant component of this type of play is creative thinking.

Cognitive activities include things like:

Sorting colourful objects with different shapes and sizes
Finding and hiding items
Identifying sounds or pictures
Arts and crafts activities
Singalongs

2. Social and emotional development activities

Kids need to learn how to build and maintain relationships to properly connect to others and the world.

Social and emotional development involves the ability to communicate as well as recognise and manage emotions.

Here are some activities that can teach children how to handle emotions in social settings:

Pretend play
Simple ball games like throwing/catching
Puppet games
Simon Says
Group sports and activities suitable for their age

These sorts of activities are also brilliant at developing gross motor skills (more below).

3. Speech and communication development activities

Communication plays a major role in a child’s development.

Encouraging verbal and non-verbal communication helps kids understand sentence structure, tone, cadence, and vocabulary.

Games that stimulate communication include:

Storytelling and reading
Tongue twister games
“I Spy”
Colour recognition games
Playing with toys and puppets

4. Fine motor skill development activities

Fine motor skills revolve around using small muscles, particularly in our hands and fingers.

Fine motor skills include movements such as picking up objects, drinking from a cup, turning the page of a book, or colouring with pencils.

Here are some fine motor skill activities that you can incorporate into kids’ daily routine at childcare:

Gardening
Painting
Creating with playdough
Cutting with scissors
Scooping dirt or sand
Using pipe cleaners, beads, buttons and other small objects

5. Gross motor skill development activities

What are gross motor activities for preschoolers?

Gross motor skills differ from fine motor skills in that they refer to skills that use larger muscles in the body, such as arms and legs.

The development of gross motor skills gradually develops as children grow. Children need to develop these motor skills through activities such as:

Riding a bike
Dancing and jumping
Playing hopscotch
Sack racing
Sports
Completing an obstacle course

Support children’s development as a childcare educator

Enrol in Academia’s childcare courses!

Certificate III in Early Childhood Development and Care

If you want to be a certified childcare educator, then your first step is to enrol in the Certificate III in Childcare in Melbourne or Brisbane.

This course is the industry minimum required to work in a childcare facility. Skills include:

Providing care and assistance
Emergency first aid response
Work Health and Safety compliance
Encouraging positive and respectful relationships with children

Diploma of Early Childhood Development and Care

If you’re ready to advance your expertise when it comes to early childhood development, then enrol in the Diploma in Early Childhood and Education Care in Melbourne or Brisbane.

This course equips you with the skills and knowledge to start your own daycare or to lead a team of childcare educators.

The Diploma is designed to help you implement a curriculum that encourages children’s learning and development.

Want to learn more about our childcare courses? Call Academia today!

If you have any questions about our childcare courses or being a childcare worker, our friendly team at Academia is more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.

We are thrilled to be welcoming back international students too!