Learning must be always fun. Especially for a child.
For a child, everything is a new experience.
Play time is more than just amusement; it’s a powerful transformative experience which teaches the child essential life skills.
It’s through play that the child undergoes holistic growth, developing cognitive, social physical, and emotional aspects of its personality.
In short, playtime transcends entertainment and acts as a catalyst for influencing the development of the child by teaching him about the vital life skills.
#1 Unlocking Creative Potential
Have you noticed how the situation keeps evolving and transforming when the children are at play?
Playtime has the ability to unleash their creative thinking.
Their boundless imagination moves freely from one setting to another, fostering their creative potential.
If one moment they’re building forts, the next they’re in some remote jungle, or maybe on some space expedition.
Storytelling and immersive pretend play are their ways of expressing their unlimited creativity.
And not surprisingly, these experiences also provide the right conditions to develop their problem solving skills. Yes, every time they encounter a problem in their make-belief world, they come up with innovative solutions.
Their creative thinking helps to foster the innovative approaches to challenges and develops their problem solving skills.
#2 Building Social Skills through Play
Playtime is the perfect time for children to learn about navigating relationships, learning about teamwork and resolving conflicts.
It’s a training ground for learning about maintaining the social dynamics. It teaches children the art of cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution.
These social skills extend beyond the playground, and hence cannot be ignored.
Forming their own groups in the playground, or deciding who’s the leader, may appear inconsequential to us. But for them it’s laying the groundwork for their future equations. Be it team sports or board games or role playing games, each of these situations promotes social interaction through collaboration.
#3 Communication Skills
Children learn early on the need for communicating effectively, be it through their crying or hand gestures.
Playtime assist the children to develop their verbal and non-verbal communication skills. They learn to use both as they discover the nuances of effective communication.
Through group activities or play-acting games or even engaging in animated conversation with their friends, children develop their communication skills.
They learn to articulate their thoughts, express their emotions, and communicate their ideas through both the verbal and non-verbal expressions.
With age their language acquisition also undergoes improvement with enhanced vocabulary.
And in case they’ve friends from different cultures or backgrounds, this exposes them to the other languages, or at least gets them familiar with the words from the other languages.
Research shows that learning a new language can improve the brain health.
Thus, sharpening their communication skills becomes all the more critical now.
#4 Emotional Intelligence
This skill often goes unacknowledged – the development of emotional intelligence.
But most of us who have been around children would’ve seen the range of emotions that the child goes through during playtime.
From happiness on reaching the park, to disappointment on not getting the favourite swing, to heartbreak on finding the best friend playing with a new friend, or joy on being included in the new group. It travels the whole spectrum.
Without realising, children learn to navigate through this complex maze by themselves.
This process provides them the opportunity to explore their emotions, recognise and manage them, and express it correctly in the appropriate situation.
Playtime becomes a safe space to learn how to deal with the emotional challenges, what to do in a certain situation, how to face adversity, and much more.
The varied scenarios at play time offer ample chances to develop their emotional intelligence.
#5 Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking
Playgrounds are rife with challenges, be it physical or metaphorical.
These challenges come in all forms, and the children have to learn to deal with them by themselves. Whether they be building blocks or puzzles or some other board games; or it can be the school playground or the park.
Each of these settings provides opportunities for children to grapple with the problem by themselves.
It’s advisable that parents maintain their distance and not get involved in trying to find solutions for the problems.
By handling this situation by themselves, children develop problem solving skills. They have to sharpen their critical thinking skills also as they’re essential for navigating through life’s complexities.
It’s learning life skills through challenges.
#6 Motor Skills and Coordination
This is one essential skill which is getting side-lined in the current lifestyle.
Development of motor skills is dependent on physical play. Activities like running, climbing, or playing sports should not be seen as frivolous or irrelevant.
The deep connect between physical play and development of motor skills is profound, almost symbiotic.
The more the children engage in physical play, the better will be their physical development, and by extension their motor skills. It also develops their sense of balance and reflex.
Development of motor skills are needed for basic activities like writing or drawing or using tools.
The advantages of physical play have been enumerated enough. So I’m not getting in there.
The lack of physical activity due to current lifestyle trends is worrisome as it is leading to a number of health problems in children.
For a well-rounded development of the children, they’ve to be encouraged and motivated to engage in regular physical activity, to develop their motor skills.
#7 Decision-Making
Playing can be loads of fun.
Children love to act as the different personas that catch their imagination. From their parents to teachers to the superheroes they fancy.
During the process of role play, they develop a very vital skill – that of decision making.
As part of the ‘role’ they’re playing, they get a chance to take decisions or make choices; they get to solve problems their persona faces by themselves.
This teaches them to think independently, make their own decisions and develop a sense of independence.
This feeling of autonomy and self-efficacy is essential for them to evolve into their own; become a more confident person.
Role playing by itself may appear fun but it’s an effective tool to teach a critical life skill.
#8 Resilience and Adaptability
Teaching children about resilience can be quite a task. It needs handling the situation with sensitivity and empathy.
But it’s a life skill that has to be taught.
And play time scenarios can be helpful to build these skills.
Children have their own set of rules governing what’s right and what’s not. So it’s not unexpected when they suffer setbacks or face challenges.
Change in school, or a new location, can be one such situation. Making new friends, finding acceptance, can help them develop adaptability.
Or overcoming game related hurdles, like not getting selected into the team or getting benched, can be major setbacks they must be taught to deal with.
They’ve to be taught about the uncertainties of life, how it can catch us unawares.
Prepare them for the unlikely situations they can face in the future.
This will also allow them a chance to think of the possible alternate ways of dealing with it.
Children who learned to adapt and bounce back have already moved ahead of the rest of their peers.
Conclusion
In summation, the impact of play on a child’s development is nothing short of holistic.
To ensure that the children get an opportunity for a comprehensive and all-round development, parents and teachers must prioritise play time and facilitate various forms of play for the of the child.
There’s no better way to learn about life skills, and no better place to learn but through play!
