The Genius of Play, a national movement spearheaded by The Toy Association to highlight the importance of play in child development, launched a free guide today, March 1, the first day of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Let’s Play — A Playbook for All Abilities provides numerous adaptive, play-based activities to promote social inclusion and help kids meet developmental milestones while having fun.

According to a 2023 Toy Association survey of 1,000 U.S. parents, nearly 2 in 3 U.S. parents consider how a toy builds certain skills when choosing products for their kids. Let’s Play — A Playbook for All Abilities features nine play ideas that parents can adapt to fit their kid’s interests and abilities. It was developed by Occupational Therapist Antonia Llull and her MPOWERME team and Ellen Metrick, a Human Factors Specialist with product safety testing company UL Solutions.

“Playfulness is a state of mind that transcends our stresses and fosters a sense of joy and well-being,” Llull says. “In children, it goes further; a playful state of being also drives engagement, development, learning, and a sense of mastery. Our playbook is a testament to the belief that play knows no bounds. It is inclusive, adaptive, and inherently enriching.”

The guide offers step-by-step instructions for simple and effective activities in addition to challenge boosters to help caregivers target areas in which kids need or want an extra challenge. There are also alternative ways to play that consider physical limitations, developmental disabilities, and family schedules such as needing to play in the car.

Act It Out is one example of an activity found in the guide. In this activity, kids are encouraged to act out scenes in a story so they can understand and manage their feelings by stepping into the shoes of different characters. For non-verbal kids, this activity can be modified to encourage the use of facial expressions, gestures, props, and augmentative and alternative communication devices.

“From enhancing hand-eye coordination through vehicle play to encouraging phonological awareness through music-themed games, our digital playbook aims to break down barriers to play by making various skill-building activities accessible to everyone,” says Adrienne Appell, Executive Vice President of Marketing Communications at The Toy Association. “Our extensive research has found that play is crucial for children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development.”

For more information and to download The Genius of Play’s Let’s Play — A Playbook for Kids of All Abilities for free, visit thegeniusofplay.org.