e-Bulletin for Parents - 24 December 2021

Tips to Quality Playtime with Children that Foster Close Parent-child Relationship

Early childhood development is the critical period involving the function and maturation of the sensory pathways in our brain development. Parents should be alert to the importance of providing necessary support and resources and spending more effort on and time with their children during their early childhood to ensure good quality parent-child interactions and necessary stimulations to children, which are the most important to their long-term health and development.

The key indicators of positive parenting practices including parental sensitivity and warmth have been shown to be conducive to quality parent-child interactions. Frequent quality parent-child interactive activities, in particular those involving recreational activities like sports and physical exercises, reading, handicrafts, and music, are highly encouraged as they are effective in promoting positive psychosocial development of children.

Take game play as an example: parents should let your child lead the game, learn to appreciate them, and be their spectator. During the process, parents should be attentive and exercise all your five instincts with your eyes, ears, mouth, heart and hand to enjoy the moment. What could parents do to enhance the quality of parent-child interaction? Parents may use the “RIDE” method - “Reflect”, “Imitate”, “Describe” and “Enthusiasm”. The examples below illustrate how to apply the “RIDE” method when playing games with your children:

Reflect: Reflect children’s intentions and emotions
Example: “You are frustrated because you tried hard and still could not stack the blocks up high.”

Imitate: Imitate children’s way to play games, and describe your own intentions
Example: “I am now stacking up the blocks into a tower like yours.”

Describe: Describe children’s actions and behaviours
Example: “I know that you are stacking the blue blocks in rows. What are you going to build?”

Enthusiasm: Enjoy the quality time with children
Example: “I am so happy to play with blocks with you.”

Parents will be able to grasp the essence of the tips to parent-child interaction by practicing and using the “five instincts” and “RIDE” regularly so as to develop a close parent-child relationship.

The above content is extracted from Curriculum Framework on Parent Education (Kindergarten) and relevant exemplar. For details of Curriculum Framework on Parent Education (Kindergarten), please visit EDB Smart Parent Net webpage (https://www.parent.edu.hk/en/article/framework_kg).