The Importance of Play
Back2School 2021 • Expert Advice • Mom2Mom
Sue Atkins is an internationally recognized parenting expert, broadcaster, speaker, and author. Here, she shares how play can help kids recover from the pandemic.
By Sue Atkins, Parenting Expert
Play is so important to help children recover from the last year of living through a pandemic. There is a huge body of evidence & research that shows that brain connections develop during periods of play, so it is vital to emotional, physical and intellectual development.
Parents don’t always understand the importance of play however, and in today’s competitive world, the temptation is to stop your children “wasting time” and to put the time to what they believe is more constructive use.
For a child, however, there is no more constructive activity than play. When analyzing the importance of play, particularly if you’re tempted to introduce a more “worthwhile” activity such as flash cards, educational computer games or dancing or karate lessons, you should take into account the following points:
1. Play allows a young child to be “in charge.”
Often children are constantly being told what to do and how to do it in their everyday lives, they’re small and powerless so play lets them explore their world free from adult interference, without an adult around, kids are exploring running the show!
2. Play also helps children learn about the world in which they live.
They can investigate and discover, test their theories, explore spatial relationships as well as cause and effect, and they can enjoy role play and can also enjoy exploring your family values such as kindness and patience. Such is the importance of play, that there’s virtually no area of life about which it can’t teach a child something.
3. Play builds self-esteem.
Play builds self-esteem as children will often play at something they know they can do well, so they feel successful.
4. Play builds social skills.
Children will begin playing with inanimate and non-threatening objects, like cuddly toys, bricks etc, but they are practicing their interactive skills. Later, playing with other children will build on this foundation as they learn to share, take turns, assert themselves and begin to empathize with others.
5. Play with parents shouldn’t be underestimated.
Play with parents shouldn’t be underestimated either, as research shows that children whose parents play with them ultimately develop superior social skills. Playing with your children builds up great family memories, bonds you together and makes life fun. It also builds bridges not walls, between you and shows you love and care enough about your kids to spend time with them doing fun stuff.
6. Playing doesn’t have to be hard work, complicated or boring.
Playing doesn’t have to be hard work, complicated or boring – it can be doing simple and inexpensive things like riding a bike, playing on the swings, playing cards, a board game or playing hide and seek.
7. Play also provides the opportunity for children to work out their feelings.
The importance of dealing with difficult or unpleasant emotions is immense. A child who’s worried about going to the dentist, for example, may deal with the anxiety by setting up a clinic for dolls with toothache.
8. Play helps with language development.
Think of the vast number of words a child uses during play, many of them repeatedly, enhancing their language skills.
9. Play allows children to grow beyond their years.
They can pretend to be all sorts of things in play – a café owner, a bus driver, doctor, a plumber, surgeon, a teacher, a postman, a chef, a fire fighter…
10. Play stimulates creativity and imagination.
Don’t forget to consider the importance of stimulating your child’s creativity and imagination – making a castle in the sand, or a car garage out of a shoe box, taking an order in their own (imaginary) café or dressing up as a king or queen – these all allow children to stretch the limits of their world and experience the fun in make-believe.
So never underestimate the importance of play whatever your child’s age.
If you think your child’s holidays or weekends will be long, full of whining about “being bored” and stressful …… guess what … they will be! You get what you focus on :) - similarly if you think time spent playing will be fun, exciting and an opportunity to create lasting, long term happy memories for your children to grow up with - they will be too! It’s a choice!
Just take a moment to ponder your child’s wedding day one day and the memories you have built, nurtured, and created for them throughout their childhood – how do you want them to describe growing up with you and the summer holidays, weekends or during this unusual time?
It’s all about your mindset as your children take their cue from you.
Playing with your kids can be an opportunity to connect, engage and relax.
Here is a simple, practical idea to make life more fun.
“I’m Bored” Jar.
Find a jam jar and decorate it with glitter and ribbon and have fun creating your colorful ‘I’m Bored Jar’.
Get together and write down all the games and activities your children love to do from playing with play dough to building a den - and then cut up the list (which you can continually just keep adding to) and pop them into a “I’m bored jar” so when they say the dreaded words ‘I’m bored’ they can go to the jar and pick out an activity.
Playing Outside
Don’t underestimate the power of playing outside. There are two fundamental reasons why outdoor play is critical for children.
Firstly, children develop their fine and gross motor gross skills through playing outside, as well as their dexterity and balance, all through exploring and risk-taking and having fun in the fresh air.
Secondly, children of today are growing up with so much technology, excessive TV and computer use that playing outside is really important and mustn’t be side-lined or lost, because it develops a child’s imagination, their physical stamina as well as keeping them fit.
Ask any adult about what they loved to play as a child and you will bring back happy memories of making mud pies, jumping in puddles, or climbing up trees. Outdoor play is one of the things that characterizes childhood.
Children need opportunities to explore, experiment, manipulate, explore, change, marvel, discover, practice, dam up, push their limits, yell, sing, and create. Young children learn lots of things about the world from playing outside:
How snow sounds when you pad about on it when it has first fallen.
How ice sounds when you crunch over it.
How autumn leaves feel and sound when you run through them on a sunny October day.
They learn to explore the natural world by trying to stand sticks in sand.
They learn how plants grow.
How mud feels.
How it feels to run down a hill.
How fast they can go on their bike with the wind blowing in their face.
Learning outside is fun!
And through playing kids are learning about math, science, ecology, gardening, nature, birds as well as the feel of the seasons, local weather and how to entertain and occupy themselves easily and enjoyably.
Learning about self and the environment
To learn about their own physical and emotional capabilities, children must push their limits.
How high can I swing?
Do I dare to go down this big slide?
How high can I climb I wonder?
I wonder if I can go down the slide headfirst?
To learn about the physical world, the child must experiment with the physical world.
Letting off steam
As a former Deputy Head and class teacher for 22 years I found kids needed to “let off some steam” regularly from the sitting and listening mode of a classroom and going outside to play was a very important part of helping them concentrate and learn both in and out of the classroom.
Health
Surveys have shown that children who learn to enjoy the outdoors have a much higher likelihood of becoming adults who enjoy hiking, gardening, jogging, bicycling, golf, tennis or other outdoor activities.
Playing and being active plays an important role in keeping children from obesity.
Allowing children to be children
So, if you are a stressed out, tired, and tense adult – get yourself and your kids down to the park to play this weekend! Join in with the running, jumping, climbing, swinging, racing, yelling, rolling, hiding, and making a big mess – let your BIG KID come out – you’ll laugh, release tension, have fun, get some exercise and relax!
You’ll also build some memories that will last all your lifetimes!
Isn’t that what childhood is all about?
About Sue Atkins:
Sue Atkins is an internationally recognized Parenting Expert, Broadcaster, Speaker and Author of the Amazon best-selling books “Parenting Made Easy – How to Raise Happy Children’ & ‘Raising Happy Children for Dummies’ one in the famous black and yellow series, as well as the ‘Can Do Kid’s Journal: Discover your Confidence Superpower’ & ‘The Divorce Journal for Kids’
Sue is the Parenting Expert for Disney Family and records monthly podcasts and Facebook Live Tea Parties around ‘Parenting Hacks,’ and regularly appears on the award-winning flagship ITV show ‘This Morning,’ Good Morning Britain and ‘Sky News.’ She is also the parenting expert for BBC Radio Stations around the UK.
