For years, the connection between children and play has been well established. As children grow and develop, play plays a crucial role in shaping and revealing their identities. Various types of play offer different health benefits, including Free or ‘pure’ play (where children have full control and adults are passive observers), Guided play (which involves teacher-child collaboration with a focus on the child’s interests), and Playful teaching (where the teacher takes the lead). By integrating diverse forms of play into their routines, children can achieve a balanced and enriched growth journey. Here are the health benefits that play offers to children.
Weight Management and Play:
Play is a crucial factor in managing and maintaining a healthy weight in children. Engaging in regular physical activity through various forms of play helps children build muscle and maintain a healthy body composition. Active play such as running, jumping, and climbing, promotes cardiovascular fitness. When children are encouraged to participate in energetic activities, they are less likely to engage in sedentary behaviors that contribute to weight gain. Additionally, play that incorporates structured activities like sports or dance helps instill lifelong habits of physical activity, which are essential for preventing obesity and supporting overall health.
Social Skills Development through Play:
Play is fundamental to the development of social skills in children. Through interactive play, children learn essential communication skills, such as sharing, negotiating, and cooperating with others. Group play activities, provide opportunities for children to practice empathy, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. These social interactions help children understand different perspectives and build strong relationships with peers. As children navigate social dynamics during play, they develop the confidence and competence needed to form healthy relationships and thrive in various social settings.
Improving Gross Motor Skills with Play:
Gross motor skills, which involve the use of large muscle groups for activities like running, jumping, and climbing, are significantly enhanced through active play. Engaging in physical play helps children develop coordination, balance, and strength. Regular participation in such activities not only improves physical fitness but also supports overall motor developmental milestones. As children practice and refine these skills through play, they gain greater control over their movements, which positively impacts their performance in other physical activities and contributes to their overall physical health.
Cognitive Development with Play:
Play naturally stimulates a child’s cognitive abilities, allowing them to participate in problem solving and critical thinking as they play. With Imaginative Play, they are able to make the unknown known in their small minds, utilizing their vast imagination to expand the understanding of the world they see. Research reveals that human social cognition stems from the ability to imagine the world in a different perspective. This ultimately allows children to develop the ability to problem-solve and make decisions as well as learning new things, specifically when faced with negative situations, such as conflict on the playground or perhaps parents disciplining their child from running too far from their sight.
Emotional Development:
Play can be extremely important when it comes to emotional development. When a Child plays, they are most times given the chance to be in their own space, to be in a place where they can freely express themselves. If a child is processing difficult emotions, they will likely be understanding these feelings through play. Doing as much as recreating the scenes to understand and fully process their emotions, and gain a further understanding of why they are feeling the way they do.
Promotes Independence:
While this does not necessarily mean complete independence, it simply involves the child being able to play in their own space, with the addition of their parents supervising them. Some believe that independent play means that the adult is not present, however that is not the case. Play can promote independence, allowing them to further develop their cognitive skills and experiment and soon learn from their own experiences without any interference from adults. Independent play can build a child’s self-esteem, well-being, and social independence.
Provokes The Development of Imagination and Creativity:
When children play, it gives them the opportunity to control their experience with their imagination, unleashing their full creative freedom without any limitations. This alone can develop a child’s unique perspective and creative expression, and through play they develop the necessary tools to build their own perspective of the world. Play is naturally an activity that invites children to use their imagination to their heart’s content, from playing with their own toys with the help of their imagination or doing so with other kids and roleplaying their futures.
Language Development through Play:
When children play, especially in groups, it can promote language development. The opportunity allows children to use their words to express their thoughts and feelings, as well as learning the ways of responding to one another. Research reveals that play is extremely effective in promoting speech and language development, the study showing that play can help children develop a larger vocabulary, mostly if the play involved adult-child interactions.
