Heuristic Play - Developing further thinking!

Have you ever heard of the term, “Treasure basket”  before? Today we are here to develop our understanding of this term and how it is associated with Early Childhood Education.

Young children are born with curious minds and children love to explore the world around them. The greater the exploring opportunities, the better it is for young children. Treasure baskets are an essential play tool for young children. It is an idea inspired from a psychologist named Elinor Goldschmied.  Elinor named this type of play Heuristic Play and it turned out to become a formal term in the book, People under three: Young children in day care

The book defines Heuristic Play as, “It consists of offering a group of children, for a defined period of time in a controlled environment, a large number of objects and receptacles with which they play freely without adult intervention”.

It is a very simplified yet a thoughtfully planned idea that enables sensory stimulation in young children. Parents and educators often wonder how to engage young children in the most efficient way. Treasure baskets can be your go to play idea which is affordable and easy to set up. For heuristic play to be an effective play method, the most important factor remains that the caregiver needs to create the most comfortable environment for the child and fulfill the role of a supervisor scaffolding the child throughout the play time.

Lets visualise this concept by looking at a case study of a mother and daughter who loves exploring with Heuristic Play. Sophie is a mother to a 2-year-old Freya. Sophie is also a creative preschool teacher as well as a passionate mother and hence carries a bank of new ideas every time to make Heuristic Play interesting for Freya. She uses a wide variety of objects around the house which are safe and friendly like egg cartons, sandpaper, tissue paper tubes, pegs, spoons, curtain rings, coaster, empty salt pepper wooden bottles, coloured ribbons, woolen ball, tea strainer, pumice stones, coconut shells and more. Sophie allows Freya to choose the objects from the treasure basket, explore these objects, compare and manipulate them at her own pace. It is also important to note that Sophie always uses sturdy baskets, tins and shoe boxes so that Freya cannot tip them over while playing. Sophie supports her daughter by motivating her to experience different objects from the treasure basket using her eyes, mouth, hands and ears.

Sophie has observed her daughter over the time to see how this kind of play benefits her. While supervising she often observes that Freya learns how things work and fit together like metal nuts and bolts. She sees increased hand eye coordination as Freya grasps objects and handles them with care. It has also been noted that Freya remains focused for longer when exploring with treasure bins or baskets. This way her senses are optimized completely thus, helping her to keep the attention on investigating the resources. Sophie’s presence makes Freya feel secure and often exchanges a smile with her. When Freya is done with her play, she signals her mother and Sophie puts the treasure basket away for the day.

So, as we see natural objects catch children’s attention more than anything else and seems to be a perfect resources for your little one’s treasure basket. Heuristic Play can result in strengthening the cognitive and motor development to a larger extent. We are sure that you would also enjoy choosing a variety of items with different tactile qualities to incorporate in your treasure basket. 

So build your own treasure basket and let your child rub, squeeze, bang, drop and fix resources on their own. 

We wish you Happy Heuristic Playing Time.