The Value of Play

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By Mardi Lucich, MA — California Childcare Health Program

Updated on Apr 6, 2011

What is play and why is it important?

From earliest infancy, play is the primary way children learn. Through play, children eagerly use all the “tools” they have at their disposal—their bodies, their relationships with their family and peers, and the world around them. Play, more than any other activity, fuels healthy development of young children. It is through play that much of children’s early learning is achieved.

Children play because it is fun. Play takes many forms, but the heart of play is pleasure. And with pleasure comes the powerful drive to repeat such activities. With repetition comes mastery. And mastery brings a sense of accomplishment and confidence.

Types and stages of play

Children engage in different types of play depending upon circumstances and particular needs. Types of play include:

• Solitary—children playing alone and independently, following their own interests without reference to others.
• Onlooker—children who watch other children playing, ask questions and make suggestions, but do not enter into the play.
• Parallel—children playing the same activity or with similar materials beside each other, but not talking or interacting with one another.
• Associative—children playing with each other, sharing similar materials and activities in an unorganized way.

Cooperative—children working together and interacting, to play or create something in an organized and purposeful way. There are also stages of complexity of play. The first stage of play is simple sensory exploration manipulation of the play material, such as scribbling with crayons, pouring water and sand, or ringing a bell. As children begin to transform and invent objects and rules, they are engaged in symbolic play. For instance, a child may cross two blocks to make the letter “T” or offer playdough “tortillas” to another child. As children become more proficient with language, they begin to substitute words for actions and materials. They play cooperatively and become interested in formal games with peers.

How does play help children grow?

Children’s cognitive skills are enhanced. Through play children learn about concepts, how to group and classify objects, how to make sense of things and events, and how to solve problems. Play often involves trial and error, and problem-solving tasks. Play requires a child to make choices, direct activities, and make plans to reach a goal.

Children develop motor skills. Through play, children develop control and coordination of muscles that are needed to walk, kick, eat or write. Gross motor skills can be enhanced when a toddler pushes a toy grocery cart or an older child plays hopscotch. Fine motor and manipulation skills are developed when preschoolers use their fingers to string cheerios for a necklace or toddlers scribble with a crayon on paper. When throwing and catching a ball, children are practicing hand-eye coordination and their ability to grasp. When children kick a ball across the room, they are practicing coordination and developing large muscle control, tone and flexibility.

Children enhance language skills. Talking, singing, rhyming, and word play help them to master the rules and sounds of language while they have fun.

Children gain social and emotional skills. Play develops imagination and creativity and gives children practice in social skills such as waiting, negotiating, taking turns, cooperation, compromise, sharing and expressing emotions. As children learn about themselves and the world, they acquire self-confidence, self-reliance and self-expression.

As children develop from infants to teens to adults they go through a series of developmental stages that are important to all aspects of their personhood including physical, intellectual, emotional and social.  The proper role of the parent is to provide encouragement, support and access to activities that enable the child to master key developmental tasks. A parent is their child’s first teacher and should remain their best teacher throughout life.  Functioning as a coach, the parent exposes a child to age appropriate challenges to encourage development as well as to experiences that allows the child to explore on their own and learn from interacting with their environment.  Child Development specialists have learned that from birth children are goal directed to experiment and learn from each experience. Child Development experts have taken the concept of scaffolding from the building trades.  Just as scaffolding is put up to support the structure of the building as it is being built and gradually taken down as the building is able to stand on its own, a parent needs to provide the necessary support for a child to allow them to safely and productively explore and learn from their environment.  As the child matures and develops mastery the scaffolding is removed or changed to allow the child to become more independent.  If the child is not quite ready, the support is reinstated and then gradually withdrawn once again. The information here provides parents with the knowledge and guidelines and tools to provide the support, guidance and learning experiences necessary for their child to grow and develop according to his/her unique developmental blueprint.

Read more: http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/#ixzz3E6PV8400
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