Growth When Playing
Playing is a full body activity that helps children develop skills needed later on in their lives. Muscle development comes from running, dancing, climbing, and rolling, also allowing kids to develop motor skills. The emotional and mental muscles develop as well when children produce, imagine, and elaborate with their own rules while they play. An example includes children teaching themselves how to control their emotions while playing. For instance when a kid pretends to be Ariel and tries to create the emotions that they think are associated with having a tail and swimming in the ocean and differentiate how she would feel on land with feet.
Play allows children to take control and master a certain part of their life without the restrictive rules. It is through play that children engage with the world and people around them on their own. When playing is not controlled children first begin to learn how to solve conflicts on their own, negotiate, share and overall work with others. A sense of confidence and independence is learned that can only be taught by the personal experience of playing. If a kid was given a basketball and was allowed to determine how they wished to play with the ball instead of someone showing them how most people normally use a basketball, they would experience more mental growth.
The act of playing allows kids to explore and find their interests. When children are set free to play and imagine as they wish without an adult or parent guiding them, it allows us to see the world from their vantage point. Unstructured playing is an outstanding way to help parents understand what their children are going through and watch them grow. The social and emotional growth that comes from children playing helps them adjust to the academic learning they will experience in school.
Although it has been proven that time for play is crucial to the growth in children, the time frame for playing has decreased in kid’s daily lives. It all starts the minute kids reach their first year of academic school. Time for playing is very limited nowadays to make room for more academic hours. The reduction of time for recess, creative play, and physical education, has everything to do with the consistent push in more academic classes for students. The older we become the more playing fades away. It is ironic how the thing that initiated our learning and growth is being taken away as we get older. When students get home from school they can not play, they do their homework. Then they go to soccer practice or piano lessons which are all extra curricular activities that are the exact opposite of unrestricted play.
Technology plays a crucial role in restricting children’s growth in play. Technology has its pros and cons. It does have its learning opportunities, but it’s a big distraction in most cases and does not allow children to interact with the world and people around them. Technology restricts people by forcing them to interact and play with the screen in front of them. An example in teen life is the popularity in video games. Instead of playing face to face with people or talking to someone who is in the same room, it is all done virtually these days. Instead of hanging out with friends teens stay home and substitute it with virtual interaction. My friend said “Playing is a fun way to naturally interact with others,” which supports the idea of face to face interaction. This plays a major role in the lack of social skills developed by most people. Technology should not, and can not continues to get in the way of and substitute social interactions and hands on playing.
