The Theory of Loose Parts · Connected Through Play

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The Theory of Loose Parts

For those of you in the US and Canada, there is a toy company called Discovery Toys, of which I’m a part-time sales rep, official title Play Advisor. Besides the mission of the company, this gives me an opportunity to chat with parents about play on a regular basis and watch their kids in action. Why this long lead-up? So my story has context😉.

Ken, my partner, and I work a fair bit of “vendor events” to get the word out about these toys and something we’ve both noticed is a parent can hand a child a highly detailed toy with lights, sounds, instructions, and a very specific “right way” to use it… and five minutes later they have discovered an entirely new way to play with it. We always set up a play area with toys for hands-on discovery. At first glance, it can look like chaos. It’s not!

Now, expand this to your home, the chaos continues. Little piles everywhere. Half-finished structures. Rocks in pockets. Random strings tied to chairs for reasons nobody fully understands except the child who built it and underneath all of that, something really important is happening.

Children are experimenting. They are testing ideas, solving problems, telling stories, redesigning systems, and learning how to adapt when something does not work the first time.

Play theorist Simon Nicholson called this “loose parts play.” His theory suggested that creativity and discovery increase when children have access to materials that can be moved, combined, redesigned, taken apart, and used in more than one way.

In simpler terms, the fewer instructions an object comes with, the more space there is for imagination.

That is one reason kids will sometimes spend longer with sticks, boxes, rocks, fabric scraps, and recyclables than they will with something designed to do only one thing. The object itself is not doing the creative work. The child is.

Remember, not every meaningful childhood moment needs to look polished or educational from the outside. Some of the deepest thinking happens in the middle of what looks like randomness.

So if your house looks a little wild this week because someone turned the recycling bin into a dragon sanctuary or a spaceship repair station, you are probably not failing. You may actually be watching the brain do exactly what it was designed to do.

For anyone interested in reading more, here’s a summary article:

https://creativestarlearning.co.uk/early-years-outdoors/simon-nicholson-and-the-theory-of-loose-parts-1-million-thanks/

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