Childhood Development
When children learn to negotiate, share, work together and compete, they are learning important skills for life. Children “try on” roles that help them to learn the culture of the adults around them. They move, think, imagine and create. The following articles take a look at the developmental and socializing aspects of play.
Children and families benefit from play
The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds,Pediatrics (Office Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics)
Experts agree that play benefits children in every area of their development. Play enhances cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. Even the United Nations has recognized play as a right of every child. For many children, regardless of social and economic status, this right has become endangered. Pediatricians have a unique opportunity to help parents and families understand the importance of play.
Children learn about culture through play
Play as Culture: Incorporating Play in Cultural Strategies, PLAYLINK
What is culture? Culture is a way of life. It’s our beliefs and our values. Culture is creative expression—music, language, humor. As adults, we become so accustomed to certain ways of seeing and understanding the world that culture can become almost invisible to us. For kids, though, culture is not invisible. Children are still in the process of acquiring ideas and beliefs about life. Play is one of the ways in which kids learn about and absorb culture—from societal values and social norms to ways of behaving and looking at the world.
An hour of play each day makes a big difference for kids
60: Play, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Kids can play their way to better health. Just 60 minutes of play per day is all they need. It adds up fast: 30 minutes here, 20 minutes there, a few minutes scattered in between – it’s easy for children to find ways to be physically active. Team sports, for example, can help to build a foundation for cooperative play, teamwork and good sportsmanship, all while helping to refine gross motor skills in children’s rapidly developing bodies. Play helps children to improve social skills and gives them a boost of confidence.
Play helps children to create order and meaning out of their environment
Children: Play and Learning, Saskatchewan Learning
Jean Piaget, the famous developmental psychologist, studied how children grow, learn and develop. According to Piaget, children use play to construct a sense of order and meaning out of their environment. When kids play, whether alone or together, their activity has great significance. Through play, children begin to learn how to think, process information and make sense of the world around them.