The Importance of Playtime in Childhood Development
Macey Rowan
Miami Dade College
DEP2000
Fall 2017
Prof. Magalie Michaud
ABSTRACT
Play has an important role in children beginning in infancy and carrying on through early childhood. A wide range of benefits to a child’s “adult” life is in part due to children’s play time. During play time, children often subconsciously create scenarios they solve themselves that help them to solve real life scenarios as well as promote a sense of confidence when approaching physical similar situations. Aside from social and cognitive skills gained, play time also promotes healthy stimulation for the body. Due to the trend of decreased playtime, I will analyze the importance of playtime in
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Instead of familiar group settings, these toddlers are with other toddlers who are developing similarly. Now these toddlers are strengthening their personal cognitive and social development in collaboration with the toddlers they are surrounded by. Through playing, these children begin to learn how to share, communicate effectively, and interact within a group. Children gain new perspectives as they watch other like-minded children play with certain toys or help to accomplish a goal, as simple as stacking blocks. These “child-group” playtimes are critical for the child’s future in which social interaction and groupwork cannot be avoided. Mallory L. Swartz states “Creative experiences with materials like playdough offer children many valuable learning opportunities.” (Swartz, M. I., (2005, March))
Mallory L. Swartz details the importance of children’s play in her article “Playdough: what’s standard about it?” In her article Swartz details the advantages of children utilizing playdough during play time. Playdough acts as an outlet for children to grasp concepts about the world, better communication skills, science skills, engineering skills, and even a way to cope with external stressors. When children use playdough they often create shapes they can connect to tangible resources such as worms or tomatoes. Children begin to test their visualization skills as
Child psychology is the scientific study of the behavior of the human child. According to Goldenson (1970), child psychology is the study of the sequence of development from conception to maturity including the roles of maturation and learning, heredity and environment in motor, emotional, sexual, social, intellectual and character development.
The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people
Did you know that play expands a child’s learning and development? Once parents understand that play is crucial in their child’s life then they can begin to help their son or daughter be the best he or she can be. According to Lev Vygotsky “play shapes how children make sense of their worlds, how they learn thinking skills, and how they acquire language.” After spending time at the Bombeck Center I learned that children play in many diverse ways, thus learning numerous new things within each center in which they interact. Lev Vygotsky along with Jean Piaget researched the need for guided social interaction as well as the necessity for spontaneous, self-discovered learning. The Bombeck Center focuses on a play-based learning curriculum to ensure a child’s ability to access social interactions and self-discoveries at the tip of their fingers.
In this assignment I plan to explain how play helps to improve the development of children and young people. Play is extremely important for the development of children. It is important that from a young age children play with things like toys and even with other children. Between the ages of 0 – 3 is when children develop the most. Through play children can improve their fine and gross motor skills by using toys such as shape sorters and using musical tables which have buttons and things to turn. This helps to develop fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are developed through crawling and learning to walk. If children have toys that are spread out whilst
Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job is to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play (CHETNA). Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child (Ginsburg). Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to
Young children learn and grow everyday. Especially, young children, the ages three years to five years old, learn important skills while they play with friends and interact with their teachers. Janice J. Beaty (2014) states that for young children, “play is their way of learning” (p. 167) Thus, teachers need to observe children while they play and assess the development of the child because “Knowing the development of a young child helps a teacher to plan the curriculum, to set up activities for individuals, or to ask for special help when necessary” (Beaty, 2014, p. 3).
By taking advantage of the children's high interest and engagement in different areas of play, educators can plan for play based activities that encourage learning and development in children. In order to do this the teacher needs to set up an environment that stimulates various play activities. Providing the children with a multitude of materials and props for different activities, will give them the freedom of choice to choose what they wish to use and how they want to use it. There must be a period of time structured into the daily schedule that will allow for play based learning activities, and reflection on them. Children can learn not only by engaging in play, but by discussing what they were
Play is such a vital process through which children learn and develop.Play gives children the opportunity to learn, develop and experiment outside the constraints of real life. Through play children gain skills, knowledge and experiences and they get prepared to stand up as a human being and a member of society. But only by playing children do not reach up to that level. At some point of time the adult intervention is required to get the right direction of play.
Play contributes to children’s “physical, emotional and social well-being” (Else, 2009, p.8) and through play, the child’s holistic development and well-being is being constantly accounted for as is it led by the individual. The child decides what s/he wants to do and does it; it is
During the preschool years, they start to interact with each other by creating complex story lines together. As they do this, they learn to negotiate, cooperate, and share (though some kids don't master the art of sharing until they're 4 to 6 years old). When children disagree about who gets to be the daddy or who will wear the purple dress, they're actually developing important social skills, says Sara Wilford, director of the Early Childhood Program at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. How you can boost social play: Once your child
Kohlberg argued that over the course of our lives, everyone is challenged against numerous choices about what is right and wrong. These challenges start as we are children and during this time of development it is important that we learn how to effectively evaluate these risks accordingly. As a child first starting out we learn about risk through play, which is why play is such an important time in a child’s life. There is however a limit to how much play a child should be subjected to, as the consequence can significantly impact on an individual’s future development.
Play is the foundation stone of children’s healthy and productive lives (Oliver & Klugman, 2002) and is also a significant means of child’s learning and development (Zigler, Singer & Bishop-
Play tests the ability of the children to be able to develop ideas around places and objective. The pretend play assists children in developing important critical thinking and evaluative skills. For instance, the board games tech the children importance concept such as waiting, turn-taking and socialization with other students. Children during play use gross and fine motor skills and react socially to each other. The children thinking what they are going to do and use language to communicate with one another and they respond emotionally to the activities.
Play is important to children. Play enhances the Childs five areas of development. Play is also an important part of a young Childs day. Young children love to pretend and play make-believe. Fantasy play provides opportunities for growth and development. Play also encourages experimentation and discovery. Toys are tools for play and play is a Childs work. When children play they learn that is why it is important.
What is play? Play is “a recreational activity; especially the spontaneous activity of children.” (Webster, 2010) Play is such a basic function and daily routine in a child’s life. Although the roles of play and the types of play change though age, it all incorporates in the growth and development of a child.