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How does play affect the mental development
How does play influence a child's development and learning
How does play influence a child's development and learning
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Play is vitally important to a good childhood. Children need to be free to run around, use their imagination, have adventures, make new friends and simply have fun. Children learn best in an environment that speaks and encourages play. Play allows children to explore, experience and grow. Play builds the foundation of children, play builds self-confidence, independence and creativity. When a child is allowed to play, it challenges their thinking skills and physical abilities. Self-confidence is gained when a child is involved in a task that requires advanced skills and they were able to accomplish the task without an adults help. Independence is then developed through self-confidence. Play allows a child to create and imagine. Play allows children …show more content…
It develops their gross and fine muscle skills. Play allows a child to gain control of her or his body and allows his or her movements to become consistent. Play requires movement of objects, and use of the five senses. While the child plays physical development is constantly practiced and performed and the child is able to gain strength daily.
Mental Development- Children are able to develop their mental skills thorough play. They are able to experience what they learned in the classroom, television or reading books. Children can now distinguish between “high” and “low” “cold” and “hot” while they are at play. Children can use imagination and play pretend, for example they can have a cooking set and place some water one the stove to boil and pretend to get burn while pouring the water into a cup to make some tea. The child will now start connecting their physical experience with their mental interactions.
Emotional Development- Creative and Imaginative play allows a child to develop positive views of his or herself. It is important that children are emotional stable. In play children do not separate the right from the wrong, everything is always viewed to be right. During play children aim to be in high positions, for example they play pretend doctors, lawyers, teachers or police officers. Play allows children to express his or he feelings and create meaning to
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• Games played indoors increases the concentration level of children
• Chances of injury while playing indoors are less in comparison to playing outdoors
• The cost of planning indoor games is lesser than that of outdoor games
Disadvantages of indoor play:
• Computer or molded climbing gyms are commonly used in indoor play and usually involves a large amount of money.
• Indoor play areas could change the ambience of the surroundings due to the noise levels.
• Indoor play areas usually take up a lot of space.
Outdoor play- A child learns on multiple levels with each new adventure, with all a imaginary castles lands, creature, the brain develops at a much faster rate than those who play in doors. There are a number of effects with outdoor play. Not only do they become better learners and do well in school, but they are more fun to be around, everyone wants to play with the child with the active imagination.
Advantages of outdoor play:
• Children tend to have more active imaginations
• More physical activity takes place
• They become more experience with the outside world
Disadvantages of outdoor
The second section will evaluate the importance of play on different aspects of social development and in various stages of an individual. The third section will analyze how viewpoints on function of play on development are shaped by historical and contextual factors such as culture and economy. Developmental psychologists use various research methods such as naturalistic observations, interviews, experimental research and examining the natural context of children’s everyday interaction within the family to study the role of play in children’s development. They apply different approaches to study different types of play. Play by nature, creates a natural learning environment for the child.
Play is instrumental in the healthy development of children. The development of play throughout an individual life is essential in providing the necessary methods to foster growth and development in critical developmental areas. According to Davies (2011), play is instrumental in providing a bridge for the child to transition from a toddler with a limited capacity to understand the world into a child in the middle years who can think logically. Play is also important in fostering cognitive development, social development, language and communication, moral development, self-regulation, and sense identity.
Does the how matter? Playing is one of the first activities children learn in the process of development. Is it a good idea? Playing is very important in child development. Most people agree that playing is important, but still today psychologists are conducting research to see what is the best way that children can learn.
An Article by Dr. Leong and Dr. Bodrova (2016) stated that play is beneficial to children’s learning especially when it reaches a certain degree of complexity. When they engage in play activities most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people and to represent things significantly to regulate their behavior and actions in a cautious, intentional way.
For my first activity with the child I have chosen outdoor play. I’ve chosen this because it really focuses on most aspects of development. After researching outdoor play, I still agree with my decision, this is due to research saying that it is very good for the child. In addition to this, it’s a form of physical play which I think will really help the child’s development.
All children play and it is something that most children do because they are having fun, but without realising children are developing and learning skills when they are engaged in play. Play helps stimulate the mind as it is practical and gives children the chance to explore and experience new situations. It can also ensure that children get to think by themselves and be spontaneous as they control their own play. Children get the chance to be creative and imaginative which develops independence for children. Play is vital for child development and helps children develop five main areas of development:
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
The book, Exploring Your role in Early Childhood Education, defines play as, “any activity that is freely chosen, meaningful, active, enjoyable, and open-ended.”(pg. 140) Play has many positive characteristics such as freedom to explore and create. Suppose when a child enters his/her classroom and has various self-selection activities available, the child can become engaged in something of interest specifically to that individual child. The book also states, “Play is active and is natural process of mentally and actively doing something.”(pg. 140) When children can act out or explore experiences they are having hands on experience and learning by actually doing. Without knowing it, children are practicing body movements as well as mental processing though acting imaginary games out.
Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (2010, July 20). Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development | Education.com.
Play directly influences how children develop both emotionally and socially. Children learn how to express their emotions and cope with their feelings as they experiment with different characters in their play. Play gives children a “harmless outlet to their built up aggression” (CHETN). This is displayed when a child becomes angry, upset, or stressed about a situation in their lives; these young children may not be old enough or have the proper communication tools to communicate what they are feeling. Therefor they may choose to play with objects that depict the emotions that they are feeling and attempt to cope. Simply said, a child will use play to explain how they are feeling rather than acting out in a negative fashion (Wehrman 351). This not only works for the child when expressing emotions, it can also be effective for whole families in coping with emotions. When families come together and play they may be “less analytical and intellectual and more ...
Children have a natural inclination to play, alongside a natural instinct to learn and to be curious and inventive, which are characteristics of the human race in general. This quote taken from Janet Moyles is a good starting point for this essay. It is well known that children love to play. If a child were to be left to his/her own devices they would happily play and create new worlds anywhere they were left. It has been well documented and researched that children learn excellently through play. However they are not always given the opportunity to do so, instead being told to, ‘finish your work and then you can go play’. Obviously this is not always the case, but the fact that it is a common practice shows that we do not all fully appreciate the importance of play to children’s learning. This essay will attempt to show how children learn through play, making reference to current theory and practice. I will also give examples from my own first-hand experience of how children learn and develop as people through play.
Play is a wonderful asset for our children and can benefit them in many ways: physical, language, self-concept, and social development are four examples of the different areas that massively impact a child’s development. The different play...
Holistic development of young children is the key determination and through play they are able to survive and become physically healthy, able to learn, and emotionally secure and into where they progress into responsible and productive adults with positive reinforcements in the future. When there are societal issues that are barriers such as “technology, childhood obesity, culture, etc.” (Gaston, A, Module 1, Unit 1, 2016), children are then unable to revel in freedom of movement in where play is adventurous and brings out positive behavior. “Play supports the holistic development through the development of intellectual, emotions, socially, physical, creative and spiritual” (Gaston, A, Module 1, Unit 2, 2016), signifying that holistic development is an important factor to be aware of as the child grows. An example would be when in Workshop 1 of Social and Cognitive Styles of Play, we had to play in the given activity for the time being and observe our members and distinguish what kind of cognitive play it was. And one of the assigned question to
it provides different play and children can face new skills and challenges. outdoor play does not just mean the garden, it progresses further for example, the park, walks, shopping malls, day trips out and much more. it gives children the opportunity for healthy exercise and the opportunity to learn more about the world and nature. To begin with, children will have less restrictions than being indoors, they have more space as large scale play can be provided. It also allows children to be able to use all of their senses, sight, hearing, smells, and they can enjoy the sense of being free and not restricted indoors. Being outdoors means the play is often open ended and furthermore children can play in different types of weather. The outdoor play encourages children to use their imagination and be creative with the resources at hand. Outdoor play often goes well with indoor play as it provides different experiences, however it is also important to remember that after outdoor play there also needs to be quiet play/areas for
To clarify the importance of play I would first explain what is the character of play in early childhood