The importance of play Essays - Education, Human Development

the importance of play The following report,Let the Children Play: Nature's Answer to Early Learningwas published in 2006 by the Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre, of the Canadian Council on Learning. It provides a comprehensive look at why play is essential for optimal development. Play enhances every aspect of children's development and learning. It is children's window to the world. Play is so important that its significance in children's lives is recognized by the United Nations as a specific right in addition to, and distinct from, a child's right to recreation and leisure1. However, children's opportunities for play and their access to play environments is changing. The Changing Nature of Children's Play The physical and social environments in which Canadian children develop have changed over the past several decades. It is increasingly rare for children to have long, uninterrupted blocks of time to play indoors and outdoors, by themselves or with their friends. Since the end of the Second World War, the proportion of the population living in urban areas has increased from 54 percent to 80 percent2. As more Canadians move into cities, their children are less likely to have access to outdoor play spaces in natural environments. Technology, traffic, and urban land-use patterns have changed the natural play territory of childhood3. Parents, increasingly concerned about the security of their children, are making greater use of carefully constructed outdoor playgrounds that limit challenge in the name of safety4. At the same time, growing numbers of children are spending substantial time in settings that focus on structured educational and recreational activities, leaving little time for participation in open-ended, self-initiated free play5. According to the Survey on Canadian Attitudes toward Learning, Canadian parents believe that playing is more important than organized lessons for preschoolers; however, more and more parents are enrolling their very young children in lessons and other structured activities. For example, between 1999 and 2003, the percentage of Canadian four- and five-year-olds who took organized lessons (e.g., gymnastics, martial arts, etc.) increased from 23% to 30% and the percentage participating in coached sports increased from 36 percent to 41 percent6. What Do Children Learn From Play? Play nourishes every aspect of children's developmentit forms the foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills necessary for success in school and in life. Play "paves the way for learning7". For example, block building and sand and water play lay the foundation for logical mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning, and cognitive problem solving8. Rough-and-tumble play develops social and emotional self-regulation9and may be particularly important in the development of social competence in boys10. Play fosters creativity and flexibility in thinking. There is no right or wrong way to do things; there are many possibilities in playa chair can be a car or a boat, a house or a bed. Pretend play fosters communication, developing conversational skills11, turn taking, perspective taking12and the skills of social problem solvingpersuading, negotiating, compromising, and cooperating13. It requires complex communication skills: children must be able to communicate and understand the message, "this is play14". As they develop skill in pretend play, they begin to converse on many levels at once, becoming actors, directors, narrators, and audience15, slipping in and out of multiple roles. In play, children learn by combining their ideas, impressions, and intuitions with experiences and opinions16. They create ideas about their world and share them with one another. They establish a culture and a social world with their peers. Play allows children to make senseand sometimes nonsenseof their experiences and discover the intimacy and joy of friendship. When it is self-directed, play leads to feelings of competence and self-confidence. The processes of play and learning stimulate one another in early childhoodthere are dimensions of learning in play and dimensions of play in learning17. Children don't play in order to learn, although they are learning while they are playing18. There are both obvious and subtle forms of learning in play. For example outdoor play clearly contributes to children's physical development. Less obvious is the learning that happens as children test their strength, externally and internally: How high can I climb? Why does my heart pound when I run? Am I brave enough to jump from this platform? Play and Literacy There are consistent findings in research about the close relationship between symbolic play