Play can immensely help children with their overall development:
- Physical
- Social and emotional
- Cognitive
- Literacy and numeracy
Physical development
Through play, children can activate, use and further build their small and large muscles. By walking and running around, their muscles and bones can get stronger. By climbing and jumping, they get to exercise more and coordinate different parts of their bodies. This will also help them gain confidence when they’re about to try something intimidating (such as climbing a height they’ve never done before).
Social and emotional development
Play can also help children better get along with others. As a result, their playtime will be more fun and interactive. They will also gain confidence when meeting other children such as in dance studios and early learning centres.
Through play, children can also experience challenges and successes. This can help them better cope and make sense of the world around them and learn how to have an appropriate social or emotional response. They will start to learn that there are “silent or unspoken rules” in different social situations.
Cognitive development
Play is also a form of learning. In fact, play-based learning has become the emphasis in early childhood development. That’s because through play, children can learn concepts such as numbers, shapes and colours. They also get to learn how to solve problems and achieve small goals during playtime. Through play, they can learn many cause-effect relationships and better anticipate the consequences of their actions and decisions.
Literacy and numeracy
Playtime is not just all about jumping and running around. During play, children often have to deal with different objects and concepts. They also have to communicate and express themselves through words. Children can also get familiar with different letters and numbers.
Play is a rich form of learning where children can develop in several dimensions (physical, social, emotional and cognitive). As a result, early learning centres today emphasise play-based learning in line with that scientific research tells us about how children properly develop.
