Children Need to Play

Children Need to Play
Tracy R. Collins
Early Childhood Education Capstone
ECE 430
Instructor Kathryn Shuler
November 8, 2010

All children need to play it is an integral part of learning and coping with the realities of everyday life. While children need physical activity to stay healthy and fit they also need unstructured, child centered, imaginative play that they control. Many parents today enroll their children in as many structured activities as possible everything from art classes to soccer. While structured activities have their time and place all children in the early years of life need unstructured play in order to learn and ready themselves for school and life. Play is crucial to every aspect of a child’s development; it is critical for the development of the whole child. Emotional development comes as children learn to conquer fears, and accept accomplishment and defeat. Physical development is developed as children run, balance, and use fine motor skills. Cognitive development is found in every activity that a child pursues if one only looks. Finally social development is enmeshed in all play as children learn to cooperate, problem solve, and understand how others feel. Play helps to develop the whole child mind, body and soul. Emotional development includes dealing with and working through fears, anxieties and desires. Play is how children learn and cope with the realities around them. An article published in, “Redbook” on the values of play tells the following story, “…the other day when a 3-year-old girl came over to our house and began playing with one of my son 's plastic sharks. She was making the shark eat plastic insects and fake fish — then spit them out. Then she would make the shark "sleep" on its back. She did this over and over, then finally walked over to her mom and said, "The shark isn 't sleeping. The shark died.” "Her grandmother just died," the mom whispered to me. "And before she died, Grandma couldn 't eat anything. I guess it 's on her mind” (Newman). This child is using unstructured play to deal with the feelings and emotions she has about her grandmother dying. Death is a reality of life that has to be dealt with and for children play is the best and easiest way to deal with reality. Dealing with emotions and feelings is just one benefit of play; it is also one of the best forms of physical development. Strong bodies create and promote strong minds. In order for bodies to be strong they must partake in physical activity. Early childhood is the strongest time for children to develop gross and fine motor skills. Play helps encourage children to strengthen, coordinate, and balance their bodies. For optimum development of all physical skills children need to play. According to the book, “Who am I in the Lives of Children” children need to explore, discover and master the physical skills in order to survive (Feeney, Moravcik, Nolte, & Christensen, 2010). Children begin mastering these skills at infancy as they try to gain control of their motor functions to hold up their head or grab for a toy. As children reach toddlerhood and preschool age motor function greatly improves which is a basic necessity for survival. The authors of, “Who am I in the lives of Children” state, “Children at play develop physical competence efficiently and comprehensively” (Feeney, Moravcik, Nolte, & Christensen, 2010 p 295). Children learn best when their bodies are strong and their senses are nurtured.
One of the major task in early childhood is building on skills and tasks to learn how to problem solve. All forms of play foster cognitive development as children learn through trial and error and watching how their play unfolds. Many parents miss the point when children play. An infant that continually drops the rattle from the high chair is learning about gravity. A toddler who is playing with random objects in a bath tub is learning that some things sink while others float; he is rationalizing why this happens as he plays. Most children participate in sensorimotor play which has direct connections to the mind. Sensorimotor play is an infant interacting with her environment, making things happen such as pretending to talk on the phone, and for older children doodling with pencils or roughhousing (Gonzalez-Mena, 2005). According to Janet Gonzalez-Mena the author of, “foundations of early childhood”, “It may seem that children engaged in sensorimotor play are doing nothing, but in reality the sensory discoveries they are making contribute to language and cognitive development in important ways” (Gonzalez-Mena, 2005, p 86). Play is important to cognitive development and readying children for more formal education, just as it is important to children’s social development.
The social aspects of play are obvious to a trained early childhood education teacher. As a teacher watches a classroom of children at play they are likely to see several social behaviors being practiced. The children in the block area are likely solving conflicts as they debate how to use the building they just built with the cars. Is the building a garage that cars drive into or a mall that cars park outside of and people walk into? These debates among children ready them for larger debates in adult life and give children skills in problem solving and compromising. Another social benefit of play is cooperation; children working together to build the building and not let it fall down are children learning to cooperate for a common goal. These skills will be invaluable in adulthood and at the work place. Play for children is what helps them grow and develop in all areas.
Play is an integral part of learning and coping with everyday life for all children. When many adults look at children playing they do not see the wonders that are really occurring. When and early childhood education teacher looks upon children playing she sees many things. During play children learn to deal with their emotions in socially acceptable ways, they develop strong bodies and refine motor skills, they learn about science, math, reading and writing in ways that adults overlook and they learn to cooperate and problem solve with their peers. Play helps children develop emotionally, physically, cognitively and socially. True unstructured play needs to be part of every child’s life in order for the whole child to develop mind, body and soul.

References:
Fabes, R., & Martin, C. L. (2003). Exploring child development (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Feeney, S., Moravcik, E., Nolte, S., & Christensen, D. (2010). Who am I in the lives of children? (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. (Original work published 1979)
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2005). Foundations of early childhood education teaching children in a diverse society (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Newman, J. (n.d.). How to let kids be kids. Redbook. Retrieved from http://www.redbookmag.com/kids-family/advice/the-value-of-play

References: Fabes, R., & Martin, C. L. (2003). Exploring child development (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Feeney, S., Moravcik, E., Nolte, S., & Christensen, D. (2010). Who am I in the lives of children? (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. (Original work published 1979) Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2005). Foundations of early childhood education teaching children in a diverse society (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. Newman, J. (n.d.). How to let kids be kids. Redbook. Retrieved from http://www.redbookmag.com/kids-family/advice/the-value-of-play