Role Play: The Importance Of Play For Young Children

Like all young children, a child enjoys the pleasure of play. However, many people have different views on play and what it is used for. First of all, many parents and teachers think that play is beneficial to young children in many ways. It teaches them basic skills they need to learn in life such as cooking or housekeeping. This type of role play helps exercise their creativity and serves as a “rehearsal for adult life” (Lester and Russell). It provides them with the skills needed for them to grow as independent adults. Say, a child is pretending to run a grocery store. Another child comes by the store and picks up an empty carton of milk. Children often experiment with numbers and prices and manipulate them to either create a sense of being “grown up” or to cause a reaction. With this being said, the child running the store charges

People who do not have a lot of living space often do not have a lot of play space for their children. Therefore, when the children are trying to utilize their only little space to play, they often get stopped by their parents, saying that “there is no room” or “this is not a place to play” (Bekoff). This causes the absence of play in small environments to conserve space (Ricasata). For instance, a child that is living in a small apartment takes out a huge play tent that he received for his birthday. He sets up the oversized toy in the living room, which only has room for a small sofa and a television. Once set up, the tent takes up so much space that there is little to no space to move. However the boy feels content with what he did, having created his own space to play in. This satisfaction does not last long when the child’s parents tell him to take apart and put away his tent, which he spent a lot of time working on. Lack of space is a huge factor on how some people perceive play as both a waste of space and