Why is playing important for my child?
[mme_highlight]Play is essential for children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social development as well as for their emotional and general well-being. Playing benefits are numerous: it develops creativity, motor skills, intelligence, helps build confidence and coping with challenges, allows group work, improves physical activity and general health.[/mme_highlight]
Play is essential for children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social development as well as for their emotional and general well-being. The importance of playing for an optimal development children is reflected in the recognition by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights of playing as a right of every child.
In addition, playing time is an invaluable opportunity for parents to engage with their children and take advantage of quality family moments. However, it seems that nowadays, free time “just” for playing is shortening and getting lost in the daily routine and highly driven schedule of activities some children have since young age.
What are the benefits of playing?
Develops creativity
While playing, children use their creativity and imagination which boosts cognitive achievement.
Develops motor skills
Fine motor skills and dexterity are needed and developed while playing.
Develops intelligence
Playing contributes to a healthy brain development, because through play children engage and interact with the world around them.
Helps build confidence and to cope with challenges.
Through play, children can explore a world they can master at their own pace, dealing with fears and challenges and enhancing confidence and resiliency.
Group work
When children play with peers, they have to integrate in a group, make decisions and follow rules, share, solve conflicts and defend their points of view.
Physical activity and health
It is also fundamental that parents and caregivers understand that passive entertainment has nothing to do with play. Play implies movement and, thus, helps building healthier chidren’s body. It has been suggested that encouraging children’s “free” (unstructured) play may be a good way to increase physical activity, which may be a part of the resolution of the obesity epidemic in children.
Way of expression
Children with more difficulties to express themselves verbally may find in play a way of expressing their views, experiences and fears. This gives parents a good opportunity to get to know these children better.
School readiness and integration
Playing helps the child to adjust to school and enhances children’s readiness to read as well as their problem-solving skills.
Note that it is ideal to find a balance between “free” children play and playing time controlled by adults. The latter is also important, but if the play time controlled by adults predominates, children follow adult rules and share their concerns and many of the above cited benefits get lost, particularly those related to skills of independent thinking and group work.
[mme_databox]
Playing vs. watching T.V. among children – weekly totals
| Playing | Watching TV | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly total | 7h28m | 13h37m |
| Percentage of week time | 4.46% | 8.04% |
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Less time for play – what are the harms?
As stated above, children need time for free play, which has been markedly reduced in the past years due to lifestyle factors and excessive time devoted to academics or extra-school activities. A survey conducted by the National Association of Elementary School Principals found, in 1989, that 96% of schools had at least 1 recess period.
A decade later this percentage fell to 70%, including kindergarten, which is preoccupying. In fact, although many children excel with a highly driven schedule, for some such a hurried lifestyle can be a source of stress and anxiety and may even contribute to depression.
Future as an adult is many times being prepared at the cost of childhood development. Although one can understand parents’ worries in the competitive world of nowadays, less time to be a child can compromise the later adulthood.
Undoubtedly, the participation in organized activities enriches kids’ knowledge and promotes different skills; quantity has to be moderated, meaning that the majority of parent-child time should not be spent arranging activities and transporting children from one to another.
[mme_databox]
Playing – weekly totals in hours in different age groups (U.S. survey)
| 5-11 years | 12-14 years | 15-18 years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 hours | 8% | 36% | 51% |
| 0-5 hours | 21% | 17% | 16% |
| 5-10 hours | 26% | 32% | 23% |
| 10-15 hours | 21% | 6% | 4% |
| 15-20 hours | 11% | 4% | 2% |
| >20 hours | 13% | 5% | 4% |
[/mme_databox]
Summary and Recommendations
- Play is essential for children, contributing to the cognitive, physical, social development as well as for their emotional and general well-being.
- The importance of playing is reflected in the recognition of playing by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.
- It is through play that much of early children’s learning is acquired.
- Playing benefits are numerous: it develops creativity, motor skills, intelligence, helps build confidence and coping with challenges, allows group work, improves physical activity and general health. Play can also be viewed as way of expression, particularly in less verbal children, and improves school readiness and integration.
- Nowadays, many children have schedules fulfilled with too many academic or organized activities leaving almost no time for playing since young age, which should be a motif of concern for parents, educators and health care providers.
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References
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Convention on the Rights of the Child. General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989
- Ginsburg KR; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications; The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics. 2007 Jan;119(1):182-91.
- Mahoney JL, Harris AL, Eccles JS. Organized activity participation, positive youth development, and the over-scheduling hypothesis. Soc Policy Rep. 2006;20:1–31.
- Pellegrini AD. Recess: Its Role in Education and Development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates; 2005.
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