Play is the way that all children learn about themselves, other people and their environment. If a child is unable to move to explore toys and their environment then these need to be brought to the child. Play can be active, passive, solitary, independent, assisted, social, exploratory, educational or just for fun. It is usually a multi-sensory experience involving sensations of seeing, hearing and touching, as well as carrying out activities requiring large or delicate movements.

Play is a good medium for the development of speech; either by practising sounds and words, or through relevant muscle stimulation activities such as blowing bubbles and musical instruments.

It also enables the child to learn choosing, sharing, cooperation and turn taking. Pretend or imaginative play with dolls, dressing up, tea sets, toy soldiers etc. allows for creative use of their imagination, practise of relevant words and language, as well as enacting role play situations and domestic activities.

Children with physical and/or sensory disabilities may need toys and activities to encourage the use of their other skills. Appropriate positioning of the child and the toy or activity are crucial if the child with a physical disability is to feel sufficiently safe and supported to want to play and to be able to interact effectively to achieve the desired result with the particular toy.

Supportive seating or positioning equipment may be necessary to give the child the physical ability to play.

Children with severe learning disabilities take much longer to learn basic concepts through play with educational or manipulative toys and have difficulty generalising skills. They will benefit from having access to a wide range of toys, which provide repetition of the same skills in different and interesting ways.

Toys need to be motivating and rewarding to encourage a child with severe learning disabilities to play. They will need time to respond, assistance to succeed and may want to repeat the activity beyond the boredom threshold of the adult playing with them! Other skills can be developed in play e.g. attention and concentration, size, shape, colour, positional concepts, matching, sorting, selecting and naming, number and time.

However, toys involving more than one basic concept e.g. colour and shape may cause confusion and therefore each concept is best taught separately before combining them.

Messy play is an important activity for children with all types of disabilities as they are less likely to be able to get themselves into a messy situations in everyday life, where they could enjoy the tactile experience. Finger paints, gluing collage materials, cornflour mixed to a paste with cold water, play dough, aerosol cream and shaving foam, jelly, instant puddings, and cooking etc. can all be used to provide messy play activities, which children with physical disabilities can be assisted to participate in.

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