Play: A Serious Business for Child Development

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), playing is a serious business for a child's health and development. They state that playing with parents and peers is essential to developing thriving brains and bodies and improving social bonds. Play is not just an important teaching tool. It's the best teaching tool. The seemingly simple activities that kids enjoy most help them explore and understand the world around them. Play is an essential part of early learning. It is the lifeblood of the learning process.  As children play they are developing the cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical skills they need to take them into successful adulthood.   

The great thing is that when your child experiences pleasure, they become driven to repeat the activity.  If something feels good and rewards us, then we do it over and over again. With more repetition, the child will achieve mastery of the skills used during play, a sense of accomplishment, and boosted self-confidence.  

Confidence is critical for children. When a child feels safe and confident, they feel that they can try new things.  So this confidence will allow them to start their next learning adventure.  This is the way in which children are learning through play and how play helps the brain to grow. 

You will find is that through playing, children will learn about their world, they will get comfortable and then begin pushing the boundaries as they develop. Children will all play differently and in any number of ways that their imagination will allow, but it will all be at their own pace, exploring, learning, conquering fears and practicing roles. It is this gradual exploration of situations that allows them to develop and equip themselves with the skills they will use to handle situations later in life. 

Good quality play is filled with laughter, joy, happiness, sadness, crying and tears…. as any parent will confirm it will contain the full range of emotions. 

This is all extremely important because it’s here that children are learning how to deal with situations, other people and experiences all within the confines of their safe environment. It is here that play is providing the opportunities for children to develop resilience and enhanced confidence; they are developing the ability to cope and handle themselves so they are ready for future challenges. 

Despite the many benefits associated with free play, it is under threat in modern society. Time spent playing is becoming drastically reduced in today’s lifestyle. Children are finding themselves growing up in a society who spend little time playing outside with others and are, instead, spending the majority of their time either in front of technology or rushing to and from activities. A childhood spent in front of a screen is becoming normal for many children and when we are spending hours a day in front of a screen, research is showing the effect it has on cognitive, social, and physical development.  The effect of a hurried lifestyle is not as obvious as that of technology. What is often happening is that parents are so eager to provide the best for their children by taking them to activities every afternoon; they are in fact creating a hurried lifestyle for them. This has an effect on children as it reduces the time they can spend in free play. 

Play is one of the joys and necessities of childhood, it is important that we recognize its importance and prioritize the time children spend playing. Give children the opportunity to be active, to play, and to have fun so they can naturally develop the cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities they need for life.