Why Play is Important to Our Children
Submitted by Lynn Saler, Holy Spirit Catholic Schools
When we think of the word play, our minds may go to the frivolous activity of young children when in fact, play is critical for a child’s overall development. It is essential to building a healthy brain, a healthy body, and healthy relationships.
Unstructured play or child directed play helps your child to develop their creativity and problem-solving skills. It could be as simple as using a bunch of sticks and rocks and they can be used in a multitude of ways. Stacking and building with objects can engage a child for a long time. When their structure falls down or a stick falls off, they have to be persistent and try a variety of ways to fix the problem. Look at all the areas of your child’s development that are being affected: brain development, patience, and fine motor skills and being flexible in their thinking. If another child or adult is involved: language skills, cooperation and negotiation are also skills that are being developed. Feeling frustrated or disappointed are emotions that we have to allow our children to experience and work through. How else will they learn to be persistent, to try to figure things out and problem solve or even to ask for help? As adults we can model socially appropriate ways to deal with those emotions.
Let’s use these sticks in another way. A stick can become a fishing rod or a magic wand. Dramatic play is also essential for your child’s development. It allows the opportunity for your child to come up with a play script or make up a story around the fishing rod, magic wand or anything else their imagination creates. They rely on previous experiences or things they have seen or heard about. As they get older, acting out these types of play scripts will be the foundation for learning to read and write. Being able to use an object, such as a stick, for another purpose relies on the ability to be flexible in their thinking, to be creative and to be able to substitute an object for something else. Again, these skills lead to readers and writers.
When you engage in the play as a play partner rather than a director of the play, the back and forth interactions with your child help develop strong social and emotional skills as well as language skills. Children watch and hear what you are doing and will incorporate that into their play (as you become a role model). Being silly and making silly sounds while you are playing with a stuffed animal or car will keep them engaged in the play. You and your child get to experience joy and have fun together. This all helps develop a positive relationship with your child. The great news is, it benefits you as well! Playing gets you and your child active and has great mental health benefits. It can improve your mood and reduce stress.
Schedule in time to play with your child each day whether it be playing outside or playing with bubbles in the bath. It will help improve your and your child’s physical and mental health. It will show your child how important they are to you and you’ll both have fun while you are building their brains and those strong relationships that are critical to your child’s healthy development
