CHILDREN LEARN BEST THROUGH PLAY
Through play, children at an early age learn how to interact and engage in the world around them. Play helps children learn and is crucial to their development, such as building cognitive, physical, vocabulary, social and literary skills. Teaching these skills can be as simple as counting buttons or toy cars (cognitive), balancing blocks (physical), modeling language during pretend play (vocabulary), playing together in a pretend grocery store (social), telling a story through pictures or writing a menu for a pretend cafe (literary).
PLAY IS HEALTHY
Play helps children grow strong, develop fine and gross motor skills, and reduces stress and anxiety.
PLAY CAN BE BOTH SIMPLE AND COMPLEX
There are many different types of play and all have their benefits. For example, functional play is playing with objects as they were intended to be used (ie: rolling a ball, pushing a train on a toy track, pushing a baby doll in a stroller, etc.). Functional play is important for discovering actions and reactions, and understanding social interaction. Symbolic play is the ability of children to use objects, actions or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas as play. A child may push a block around the floor as a car or put it to their ear as a phone. Socio-dramatic play is the more advanced form of symbolic play and requires the use of imagination. Through this pretend play, children learn skills in negotiation, listening, sharing, taking turns, and respecting others’ feelings, thoughts, ideas, and physical space.
PLAYING OUTSIDE HAS MAJOR BENEFITS
Outdoor play and nature help build confidence, promote creativity and imagination, teach responsibility, encourage physical activity, and reduce stress and fatigue. Outdoor play is great for sensory stimulation. It exposes children to vibrant color, a variety of sounds, and fosters an appreciation for civic responsibility and the environment.
INDEPENDENT PLAY IS IMPORTANT TOO
Independent play is just as important as group play for children. It teaches children how to be self-reliant, creative, imaginative, and helps improve focus and thinking capabilities.
YOU ARE FUNDAMENTAL TO PLAY
As parents and caregivers, you are the biggest supporters of your children’s learning. You can make sure they have as much time to play as possible during the day to promote cognitive, language, physical, social, and emotional development. Sometimes as adults, we forget how to play, but use your instincts and let your children guide you! Now’s the time to revisit and share with your children the kind of play you loved as a kid.