The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states that every child has the right to play, as well as the right to life, education and health. Theorists such as Lev Vygotsky claim that play helps children increase their ability to interact with others, practice taking on different roles, and develop creativity. Above all, through play, children master new skills and learn new information about the world.
Parents and guilt
Too often, studies on the benefits of play are misunderstood by parents. They end up feeling guilty that they are not doing enough to guide their children’s development. They worry that if they don’t provide their children with the right play experiences at the right ages, their children will fall behind other children, fail in school, and ultimately fail in life.
Soon learning becomes a competition. By controlling the way their children play, parents are trying to achieve a specific result, a measurable success. Afraid that skipping an activity will put their child behind other children, parents sign their child up for everything and fill their remaining free time with flashcard memory exercises.
Activities such as ballet lessons, music lessons, karate lessons, foreign language classes, and participation in sports teams are all wonderful taken one or two at a time. However, if you accumulate too many at once, you are neglecting one of the most important developmental opportunities you can offer your child: the open, child-driven play that is shared with you at certain times.
The benefits of the game
Children learn essential life skills by copying adult role models. From the moment your child is born, you are his first and best toy and playmate. As they grow older, connecting with them through shared play experiences strengthens the parent-child bond and keeps the lines of communication open even when daily schedules become more hectic and time together more difficult to organize.
However, children also need time and space to explore the world and their imaginations for themselves. Adults should never take over playtime and direct all of a child’s actions. As Kenneth R. Ginsburg (Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) and two committees of the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in a recent clinical report: “When adults control play, children access rules and concerns of adults and lose some benefits of the game, particularly in the development of creativity, leadership and group skills”.
Choosing and using appropriate toys can help you understand when to actively engage in play with your child and when to let your child take charge…
active interaction
For many toys, both you and your child must take an active role because the toy requires at least two players. For younger children, both of you can play an active role by rolling or throwing balls back and forth. For older children, sports equipment such as bats, gloves, soccer balls, basketballs, and soccer balls can provide hours of fun, physical activity, and low-key lessons about taking turns, following the rules, good sportsmanship, and (if playing together against another opponent) cooperation and communication. Multiplayer games (such as chess, checkers, Monopoly, or Jenga) can also reinforce these lessons.
Active modeling and passive tracking
Childhood should be a journey, not a race, with plenty of time on the road for research and discovery. Get your child what the American Academy of Pediatrics calls “real toys,” which lead to open play rather than one or two closed outcomes that the child is quick to master. Such toys include blocks, construction sets such as Legos, costumes and accessories for dress-up and role play, dolls and puppets, figures of people and animals, toy sets, play food and toy vehicles.
With these types of open-ended toys, sit back at first and let your child examine them before jumping in with prompts, directions, or suggestions. Never assume there is only one right way to play with a toy. It’s okay if your child pours building blocks for tea into teacups or loads trucks into doll beds for naps. Giving your child the physical and mental space to play with the idea that these objects can be anything is exactly what your child needs.
Unless your child’s play becomes destructive, let your child take the lead when playing with these toys. You can play alongside your child, but don’t overshadow or correct him. For role play, let your child assign the roles. Children often want to be in power and dictate to adults in ways that are not allowed in real life.
Pay attention to your child’s interests and abilities and select toys accordingly. If your child asks for your help, then you can model how to act out a certain scenario or demonstrate a useful strategy for connecting the parts of a puzzle or construction game (for example, solving a puzzle by putting its edge together first). If you notice that your child is getting increasingly frustrated with a toy, consider whether the task at hand is too difficult. Perhaps the toy is more appropriate a few months or even a year later.
One of the best things you can do during imaginative play is help your child develop language skills. Discuss what your child is doing to introduce new vocabulary, saying things like “I see you parked the red tractor next to the green block.” Or, you can encourage your child to talk about what he’s faking by asking questions like, “What are you dressed as? What do you think a fairy/doctor/astronaut does?”
solo game
Some toys are great for a child to play alone: those with what Montessori theorists call “error control,” where a child can tell for himself whether he is completing it correctly or incorrectly. It is good for a child to imaginatively play with the pieces of such a toy in ways other than the toy’s stated purpose, but it is also beneficial for him or her to discover how to stack, arrange, or assemble it correctly. road. Toys of this type include stackers, sorters, and puzzles. Parents can offer help if asked, but if not, let your child master the toy on his or her own time.
Many arts and crafts activities, such as drawing, painting, beading, and playing with clay, are also best done almost exclusively by a child. As Susan Striker, author of Young at Art and the Anti-Coloring Book series, says, when children see an adult draw or create something, they often focus on copying it over and over to please the adult instead of developing their imagination. own individual creativity. .
Striker Champions let kids make their own discoveries about each medium, regardless of the mess. That said, more orderly parents can afford to at least explain to a child how to use the materials, and then step back and let the child create whatever she wants. An adult should never step in and correct a child when a child is creating art. It doesn’t matter if the lines aren’t drawn straight or if a clay person is missing feet. The creation process, not the final product, is the important part at this stage.
What you can do
As a parent, you can help children develop in many ways. Play expert B. Caldwell notes that parents can support play by providing “time, space, materials, or social partners.” [such as siblings]”Always keep in mind that, as Ginsburg says, the best way to ensure your child grows into a wonderful adult is”[share] pleasant time together.”