With the return to school, much is said about the importance of establishing routines, methods of study, learning new things but we often forget one thing: children are still children, and it is imperative that continue to have, every day, free time for play.
But playing is not just about watching TV, playing games, or discovering new features of your tablet or mobile phone. To play, it is to have the opportunity to create, explore, invent and, above all, is a unique opportunity of development.
Promotes integral development
The different jokes, whether they are more or less oriented, of a more physical character (like running, jumping) or requiring finer motor skills (cutting, drawing, painting, building) stimulate different areas of development: from cognitive to emotional, not forgetting the psychomotor or the language. The scooter for kids and toddlers are considered important for kid activities. These all benefit stimulate the child to progress in the right direction.
Enables self-knowledge
Play allows your child not only to know your body and how you can use it to play games (and other activities), but also to know your tastes, affinities and preferences.
This culture of self-knowledge will later generate more adaptive levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. It also allows you to recognize your strengths and weaknesses, potentialities and limits.
Stimulates skills
Play helps to work on fundamental and transversal aspects for life, such as communication (verbal and non-verbal), conflict management and the ability to solve them through negotiation. It also allows for teamwork (when play includes other children) and cooperation, as well as self-control and the ability to give up one’s own ideas and preferences for collective decision-making.
Generates resilience
In the games, you do not always win the competitions, you do not follow our ideas, everything does not work well and, as you would expect, children feel frustrated with it. The way the child seeks to overcome this frustration and disillusionment, in a positive way, is called resilience.
Anna Leake is a health blogger that focuses on topics related to nutrition, fitness, and mental health. She was born in New York City but at age 6 moved to the Midwest where she spent her childhood exploring nature with friends and family. Anna graduated from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with degrees in psychology & human development.
