Why Play? The Importance of Play
Importance of Play Children are active learners who construct their knowledge and understanding of their world through play. Children play in order to understand the world around them, to express themselves and to practice new skills. They need to explore, manipulate, and respond to their environment & their experiences. Through play by concrete experiences, children will develop intellectual, social, emotional and physical skills. By Sim White- September 2007
Importance of Play Play is an avenue for children’s self expression and is a powerful way of acquiring social experiences through interaction with others. Play helps children to find new ways of dealing with reality and enables them as a whole to get through the complexities of life. Play helps children to understand and solve problems related to everyday life. They form relationships, share, cooperate, master their feelings, test ideas and form associations between events, concepts and ideas. By Sim White- September 2007
Importance of Play Play encourages children to explore, investigate, discover, create and invent with both new and familiar material. Play helps to reduce stress and allows children to take risks as they can be spontaneous and free spirited. Play challenges children to achieve new levels of understanding of objects, things, events and people. During play, children are able to practice life roles by pretend play and to process the symbols of everyday living. By Sim White- September 2007
Importance of Play Play is a natural and necessary activity for children. As children play & experience the world around them they learn to become creative thinkers who can cope with challenge and change. Researchers & educators refer to play as “ The work of childhood” Children learn what they want and their own pace when they play. By Sim White-September 2007
Importance of Play Play enables the child to understand concepts through hands on interaction and sensory involvement with things. Play is intrinsically motivating as it comes from within. Play focuses on the means not the ends. Play is process oriented not product oriented. Play is free of rules and involves active involvement of the child. By Sim White- September 2007
Importance of Play Play is voluntary and chosen by the child Meaningful to children Child-directed Natural Flexible Spontaneous Free of rules unless there are agreed upon by the participants Fun
Importance of Play Play provides opportunities for creative development when children: Feel good about themselves Discover, learn and develop specific skills, abilities and talents. Learn about and cooperate with others. Gain awareness of and appreciation for human diversity. Explore the physical and natural world. Express feelings and ideas. Relieve tension and/or frustration. Try out imaginary roles and activities. Be spontaneous, and have fun. Explore interests, likes and dislikes. Take risks, practice problem solving and learn from mistakes. By Sim White September 2007
Play Environment Setting up a play environment is critical for young children who gain much of their knowledge about the world through their senses. The younger the child, the more dependent they are on sensory learning and on physical contact with their environment in order to learn, know and understand. The setting needs to be at the child’s eye level, and be warm, attractive, bright & comfortable. The play spaces should be well organized and planned. By Sim White- September 2007
Play Environment When space is well planned and thought out, children can be more independent and self-directed in their play and spend less time trying to guess what is expected of them or try to makes choices that are not obvious. Always choose equipment, toys, materials and supplies that match the developmental priorities of the learning areas/centres. Children learn when they feel psychologically and physically comfortable. By Sim White- September 2007