Now that lazy summer days are over and school is back, children both young and old need to settle into the daily routine changes and keep up with the new challenges being offered.
Children have to be at school on time, listen and work as best they can, progress and achieve and meet deadlines.
This is no joke. It is a replica of adult life, but at the same time, children are not as mature as adults are supposed to be, nor are they able to look after themselves on their own. Very often they need adults to protect them and intervene so that they enjoy space for their natural development.
Play is an essential part of child development. It is as necessary as their daily food
Young children go through development in four main different areas. They develop physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively all at the same time.
Physical development depends mostly on having a healthy diet, exercise, together with long hours of daily sleep. A child who lacks the required hours of sleep wakes up grumpy, is slow and unable to grasp what is going on in the first class lessons.
Cognitive development refers to learning new things. A child’s learning hours are not only the ones spent at the class desk but learning takes place every single minute of the day. In fact, we know that more learning takes place outside school hours.
The drive to learn is inherent and strong but it can also be stunted. School lessons are formal and controlled but fun lessons take place everywhere, in the kitchen, playground, during walks or hikes, in other words, wherever children are playing. Play is their learning medium.
Play has been defined as scientific research conducted by children (Bob Hughes, 1996). Albert Einstein supports this when he points out that, “play is the highest form of research”. Alfred Adler once said: “Play is a child’s work, not a trivial pursuit.”
Social skills are best learnt through human interaction both with adults and with peers. Two-year-olds are sometimes afraid of other children because they do not know how to get along with others. Playing with peers, under close adult supervision at first, is reassuring.
Emotional intelligence, empathy, self-expression and knowing the vocabulary that describes feelings is another important part of child development. Often these last two areas are not given the importance, time and training they deserve.
Play is an essential part of child development. It is as necessary as their daily food. Play touches the four areas of development mentioned earlier. Through play, children experience and freely practise both intra-personal and interpersonal skills, which are so important but cannot be acquired from television, computers , tablets or other electronic equipment. Play has a significant role in brain development in the first six years of life.
Child-centred play lends itself to decision-making, cooperation, understanding others, self-expression, responsibility, handling conflicts, resiliency, leadership and other vital skills needed in daily adult life. Play can also be adult-directed, where children are given guidelines on fairness, encouragement and building parent/adult supportive relationships.
Playtime is a great opportunity to bond with one’s own children. Free play should be free, not competitive. Its value is intrinsic. Its aim is enhancing the natural development of each child without stress or lowering of self-esteem.
In spite of researched evidence about the importance of play in a child’s life, unfortunately it often happens that time for free play is reduced in schools and in families for the sake of curricula or an overburdened lifestyle. The fact that children do better when they feel better and are happy is often neglected.
As Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi pointed out more than 200 years ago, “Learning is not worth a penny if courage and joy are lost on the way”.
Others studies point out the importance of paternal play with children between the ages of two and three. When a child spends half an hour of play with their father or mother every day before bed time this has a positive effect on the physical, emotional and cognitive development of the child besides a relaxing effect on the father or mother.
Play deprivation quotes its own price. Although research in this area is not vast, what has been shown so far points at some worrying concerns. Play-deprived young children were observed to have poorer motor skills, lower physical activity, poorer ability to deal with stressful situations, and poorer social skills and conflict-solving abilities. They are often aggressive and whine a lot. (Best Play, 2000)
So in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the academic year it pays to include time for play every day; besides being a children’s right it is a shortcut to progress and achievement. Putting the cart before the horse might lead to stagnation and stress.
As developmental psychologist Erik Erikson says: “The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.”
callus@maltanet.net