Nursery World - Home learning - A parent's guide to ... treasure basket and heuristic play

Giving your child opportunities to explore a variety of objects can
aid their developmental progress. Penny Tassoni explains.

Babies, at the age where they can sit up, and toddlers love exploring objects and are fascinated by sounds and textures. For many years, treasure basket play and heuristic play have been used in nurseries to support their development. Indeed, you may have seen children playing with an assortment of objects and wondered what they were doing. So what is involved in these play approaches? And how do they benefit children?

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS PLAY

1. No toys

While there are differences between treasure basket and heuristic play, they both involve children playing with a group of objects rather than toys. This is because by their very design toys have a set purpose, and this can be limiting. Playing with a range of objects provides more possibilities for children to explore. A baby may combine an enamel cup with a nail brush and bang them together before moving on to suck the end of the brush.

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