How play promotes development

Play is the essence of a child’s world.

Play is essential to the development of children.

Play is required for healthy development. It influences and impacts the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children.

Play stimulates the brain which is critical in making connections between nerve cells which in turn  helps to develop a child’s gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills, emotional skills and support their overall development.

In fact play is considered so important that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.

Children’s continued play supports all aspects of their development.

Play is a child’s first discovery of sensation, movement, language and their surroundings.

It is an essential and critical component of a child’s development.

Play is the primary vehicle for optimal growth in childhood.

Play is universal. It doesn’t matter the culture or individual circumstances of a child. Play is a necessity and transcends these elements.

Every child has a fundamental need and right to play.

The world for a child is full of adventure and discovery and play facilitates a child to explore their world.

Play is the process in which a child learns about and makes sense of their world, how things work, how to cope with situations….it’s a framework for their learning and development.

Most of a child’s day should be spent engaging in play of some sort.

Primarily, play is enjoyable to a child., however, it plays such a vital part to their development as it enables them to grow and develop in all areas of development.

Play facilitates children to develop self-confidence, a sense of competence.

Play permits a child to take chances, problem solve, understand cause and effect, learn more about themselves, others.

Play aids a child understanding the world around them and promotes a child to recognize their place within it. The importance of play can never underestimated.

Play allows children to express themselves.

Play supports a child to express their feelings and emotions, learn how to self-regulate and work through their conflicts and make sense of everything they see, hear.

Play provides the opportunity for a child to practice and make mistakes.

As children move through developmental stages you will inevitably find that their play changes along the way. This is normal development. Child learning is focused on play primarily as play is the major vehicle for a child’s view on development.

Play allows a child to learn. Learning is remembering and understanding. Children need continual opportunity to access play. Child led play is the most beneficial type of play and learning experience.

Play develops in several stages. Infant play consist mainly of mouthing and simple manipulation. This type of play is very important to an infant. The quality of spontaneous play is linked to development. This is reduced if the play is solely adult directed play. Children need endless opportunities for play.

Play is critically important as it allows children to develop vital physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills.

They practice and reinforce these skills in a way that can’t be achieved through worksheets or screen time.

Play is vital as there are children according to The Australian Early Development Census displaying significant developmental vulnerabilities. The statistics showed that there is a national average of 21.7% of our 5-year-olds who fall into developmental vulnerabilities.

Play from a child’s perspective is done out of sheer enjoyment.

For a child play stops being play when it is no longer pleasurable. Play for a child is for play sake, there is no visual “payoff” for the child.

Through play, children develop resilience and flexibility, contributing to physical and emotional well-being. They are able to test out new ideas, practice previous experiences, make connections, engage

Play to according to a child:

To an adult a child playing with blocks may look like they are just ‘playing’. In a singular play activity there are numerous valuable learning components occurring and yet to the child the play is simply enjoyable.

• Voluntary and intrinsically motivated. Children need the ability to choose their own activity and its direction.
• Self-satisfying as they do not place demands or expectations on themselves.
• Symbolic and meaningful as they are able to relate their past experiences into their present world.
• Empowering as it provides a child to be able to make decisions, transform themselves, etc.
• Play needs the child to be actively participating in it. Active play facilitates a child to explore, experiment, investigate, inquire, pretend.
• Something children often place their own rules on. They can at times make explicit rules. As they get older they are able to accept predetermined rules to play.
• Play needs to be pleasurable to a child.

Children learn through play in so many ways.

They learn by doing, by experimenting.

Modern brain research and imaging has shown the benefits of play and how it builds and strengthens the brain pathways, creating flexibility and improving the potential for learning.

Play is linked to cognitive and physical development and social and emotional development of a child.

Playing freely enables children to learn invaluable skills that will be applied throughout their life.

This is visible through the child’s development of:

• Resilience
• Self-esteem
• Empathy
• Cooperation
• Engaging with other children
• Promotes friendships
• Playing with games with rules
• Imagination and creativity
• Mental skills such as managing time, planning and organizing, memory recall, etc
• Socializing
• Learning about themselves and others
• Discovering ways to do things
• Socially acceptable behaviours such as self control and self discipline.

It is central that we ensure that there is a lot of unstructured play to enable children to explore and learn through play.

Recently there has seen a significant reduction in opportunities for children to play freely, particularly outdoors.

Adults need to advocate the importance of play and provide endless quality opportunities for children to continue to play without obstruction.

If we look at one element of play, imagination and the link between play and development it highlights the importance of play.

Children playing assists using their imagination to act out how they are feeling.

Play enables a child to act out situations. Play enables a child to explore something they have seen and put it into context.

A child using their imagination in this way helps them to:

• Explore their feelings to express themselves through the opportunity to let off steam, get cross, cry, etc
• Develop empathy and consideration for others, as they experience being in someone else’s shoes
• Develop listening skills and verbal communication from social interaction with other children
• Gain perspective and learn what is real and not real.
• Play lays the foundation for reading and writing, and for mathematical and scientific skills. Play supports a child learning colours and shapes when engaged in activities like painting, matching games, etc. A child discovers different textures and the significance of objects by exploring things that are rough and smooth and playing with water and sand.

The key to learning through play is having endless opportunities to learn things and develop for themselves.

Promoting play ensures we create a future generation of free spirited human beings, who have the instinct to innovate all by themselves.