Do Your Children Know How To Play?

Strange question, isn’t it? Don’t all children know how to play?  Isn’t that what childhood is all about – playing?

What is play really? Researchers have determined that there are five key ingredients to make it true, authentic “play”:

• Play must be pleasurable and enjoyable
• Play must be spontaneous and voluntary
• Play must contain an element of make-believe
• The player must be actively involved in play
• Play must not have any extrinsic value

According to these criteria, TV is not play, computer and video games are not play, even educational flash cards are not play.  Unfortunately, many of the toys found in homes today involve passive, uncreative play.  High-tech toys, while seemingly fun and educational, typically require pushing buttons to be entertained – hardly the interaction beneficial to cognitive development.

In Dana Johnson’s “When is Playing Not Playing?,” the author highlights that play activities of today, while often encompassing a mix of the first three criteria, seem to be lacking in the two latter areas: “The player must be actively involved in play” and “Play must not have any extrinsic value.”

Examples of true, valuable play include:

• Solving puzzles and playing with building sets (enhances logic, spatial reasoning and fine motor skills);
• Playing store or school (feeds the imagination and emotional health as well as develops social skills);
• Riding toys (builds gross motor skills and agility);
• Drawing and crafts (develops hand-eye coordination and self-expression).

 

In many of today’s most popular games, the child’s imagination is not actively involved. As for the educational toys, while no one can deny the valuable skills learned, classic play is about learning naturally. Children are natural born explorers and creators.  So, as parents, it is our responsibility to allow them to play!

Suggestions include:

• Play every day (undirected and uninterrupted by adults)
• Play is play (no “teaching” required!)
• Keep multi-purpose toys handy (using their creativity and imagination is the whole point)
• Limit television watching
• Offer toys made of natural materials
• Encourage role-playing and the world of make believe

Growing up can be challenging - siblings, learning to share, accepting authority.  Creative play allows children “wish fulfillment, offering the child a sense of resolution that he can’t find in reality,” says Charles Schaefer, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  “Playing out a fantasy is comforting because you regain a sense of power and control,” he says.

 

Reference: www.naturalfamilyonline.com and www.todaysparent.com and www.parenting.com

What The Experts Say:

• Do Your Children Know How to Play?
• Keys To The Treasure Chest.
• Make Believe
• Creativity
• Independent Thinker
• Opening The Door