Playful Caregiving BehaviorPlayfulness is an important ingredient injoyful classrooms and a powerful way toimprove behavior and relationships athome, too. When children are misbehavingor entering into power struggles, they aretypically trying to communicate, “I needsome positive connection.” Even whenchildren are misbehaving, we can meet thisneed for connection in a simple way bybeing playful right then. Playfulness relaxesthe stress centers in the brain andcommunicates an important message: “Iam here for you, I like you!” You can state alimit with a smile to communicate: We needto do something different. Include a playfulvoice to gain cooperation moving to anacceptable choice.

Playful behavior comes easily to some andis more unfamiliar for other adults. If yougrew up with caregivers who were playful,this will likely come more naturally. If not,here are some ideas about what playfulbehavior looks like:

● Pretend to be an animal that the childlikes or a character from a book or film.

● Make up a simple song with rhymingwords to accompany routines.

● Songs that include silly faces or dancemake it easier for children to cooperatewith behavior requests andtransitions.

● Make up a rhyme, emphasize therhythm, and use it consistently tomake routines fun.

● “Play the fool”- pretend like you forgothow to do something obvious. If a childis refusing to put their socks on, saysomething like “Aw man, I guess I haveto help you put your sock on!” andthen put it on their head.

● Be the voice of a stuffed animal, doll, orother toy to make a behavior request.

● If the child is small, pick them up andfly them through the air to transportthem somewhere in a fun way.

● “Gossip” with a stuffed animal, puppet,or doll about what is happening withyour child. “Mr. Bear, this is a little bitconfusing. It seems like Jacob forgothow to use his fork! Do you think youcan remind him how to do it?”

● Bring some pretend into dailyactivities: pretend to sprinkle magicdust onto areas of the room to “turnthem into” something exciting orappealing.

● When offering positive reinforcementsuch as a high five, pretend like yourbody is getting thrown across theroom because the child is so strong.

● Break out into dance during chaoticmoments to diffuse tension.

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