Play prepares the brain for wellbeing
Joy of play is thought to be one of the key characteristics that makes play a force for good in children’s lives. For a start it keeps them coming for more! When we’re enjoying themselves, our brain releases a chemical called dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is a crucial part of how we motivate ourselves. And healthy levels of dopamine are also linked to better memory, creativity and mental flexibility. Therefore, when children are busy playing they’re also busy building up crucial skills for living well.
Every child wonders what they’ll be when they grow up, but how do they prepare for a world that constantly keeps changing?
It has been found that when children play, they learn to; solve problems, think strategically, relate to others, and manage life’s ups and downs. Play helps children learn how to learn – and love learning.
Therefore, it is thought that learning through play is crucial and needs to be embedded into every home and classroom. Research suggests that the sooner we bring in learning through play, the sooner we help our children to get set for tomorrow, whatever tomorrow looks like.
A large part of the latest research suggests that play develops five life skills.
Physical skills.
Running, jumping, learning new sport games, make children physically and mentally strong. It has been found that physical play releases endorphins, hence the games act as great mood-boosters, whatever the age. Physical play is more than just a rough and tumble. Balancing blocks, filling up buckets of sand, planting flowers or mud cooking are all physical games that build fine motor skills too.
Social Skills
So many games are thought to be better with friends and when children work together to solve problems they learn to toss ideas, to listen to others and even to negotiate. Playing together tends to build empathy by helping children think about their teammates, therefore, building an essential skill for grown up life too. Learning to collaborate at a young age will help them do better at school and later at work. Also, it will help them make friends, get on with their families and in turn improve their own mental health and wellbeing.
Emotional skills
When children get lost in a game or project it, it stretches their heart as well as their mind. They learn to get on with others and learn to spot when their playmates are feeling happy, sad or frustrated. Also, together they learn to persevere and solve the trickier puzzles, remember lines for a play or find out that they can’t be the star of every make-believe game. They would enjoy fun and cheers when they win, but at the same time they face their frustration when things do not go to plan. This is what they need to be level-headed and keep as calm as possible in crisis (later in life), or to experiment their way to designing the next great innovation.
Cognitive Skills
It has been found that when children are provided with a playful learning, they get so immersed in creating strategies and solving problems, they will want to stretch their brain cells. The joy of play gives them the incentive to develop complex reasoning skills, memory, focus and concentration, much more than when they are being told to sit and repeat or memorise facts. Since we do not know what the future holds, this flexible thinking that is brought about by play will help the children adapt to whatever life challenges the grown up world will offer them.
Creative Skills
We could define creativity as the way how we convey to the world about ourselves: we write, tell, perform, compose and craft our stories. But it’s also how we draw connections, make sense of abstract ideas and test things out. Imagining a broom as a horse is creative same as is designing a parachute that lets an egg drop from the roof without breaking it. Creative play puts children in charge of exploring ideas, relationships, spaces and problems. It sparks confidence as they learn to trust their natural curiosity. According to business leaders, creativity is one of the most highly prized skills at today’s work world and probably even more so in tomorrow’s work world.
Examples of well know children’s games and how they impact their development.
Hide and seek –a very simple game which requires complex cognitive and creative skills to reason out a good, unexpected place to hide. Also, it would need good social skills to get all the friends to play along. Dashing from one hideout to a thought better one or working out how to cram into a tight spot without being seen are all physical skills. Through this familiar game they learn to be more aware of their surroundings, to be more resilient, more empathic (help friends to hide together) and a lot more strategic. And the more they play the more they interweave these skills together creating an enhanced set of skills and capabilities on which they can always rely on.
Or simple playground games –when children are rushing about they are working on their physical coordination, learning to get on with others and they are regulating their emotions; managing disappointment when they’re caught or cheering a friend.
It is strongly suggested that adults should support children’s play, but not direct it. Children should take the lead in their play: making decisions, trying out different ideas and giving it another go if things do not go well. However, that does not leave the grown up out of the picture. Adults have a crucial role to play and that can happen in many different ways. For example setting challenges, defining the rules for an activity, asking open ended questions or simply joining in with their games.
If adults get involved in play, meeting the children where they are to share and encourage their ideas, they both get lots out of it. The adults should resist the urge to take control. Instead they should try asking open questions that invite little ones to explore for themselves. Instead of saying ‘Here is how to build a marble run’ say ‘Who can build the fastest marble run?’ Using language/questioning this way can unlock a powerful world of learning through play that all parties involved would enjoy immensely.
Glossary
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