Free play
Go and play yourself sounds simple, but inventing something, choosing and getting started alone is a little project of its own. The visual support below nudges the child toward those first choices so play can begin.
♀Free play
A happy girl in a dress stretches out her arms surrounded by toys.
♀Free play
A happy girl plays with arms outstretched surrounded by a ball, teddy bear and spinning top.
About this visual support
Tell a child to play freely and you are really asking them to make a string of decisions all alone: what should I do, which toy should I grab, how do I begin. For a child who easily gets stuck at the starting line, it is exactly that first nudge that is missing, and without it a pile of toys can stay just a pile of toys.
Visual support does not hand over the work of imagination, but it offers ways in. A picture of the ball, the teddy or the blocks becomes a concrete suggestion to latch onto, and once the first choice is made, play tends to find its own direction. It is less about steering the play and more about helping the child past the threshold where initiative otherwise stalls.
One concrete tip: keep the pictures open rather than finished, so show a toy but not exactly how to use it, letting the child fill in the rest so the play stays their own. In the Routined app you can gather the child's favourite toys as choosable pictures, so the one who does not know where to begin can point their way to an idea.