The Importance Of Play In Child Development

Play is a concept that children naturally embrace and pursue while adults often misconstrue and undervalue. Play is not a specific activity performed in a specific way, instead it can be a variety of things that entertain a child, or adult .Despite the ambiguity of what specific things constitute play the concept and practice of play are extremely important to a child’s development. This essay will show that a variety of different play is pivotal in a child’s holistic development including their physical, social and intellectual development and that the concept dictates requirements in the playbased pedagogies in contemporary early childhood settings. There are a number of different definitions of play and what it means so this assignment will

Studies have shown that from an economical viewpoint it is worth the state’s attention to invest in play-based learning for children (Beatty, 2009). Different types of play will effect different aspects of development, for example studies have shown that movement play has a direct, positive benefit to a child’s physical development (Archer & Siraj, 2015). Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasel & Singer (2006) draw on a multitude of sources and discuss the best way to aid a child develop their intellect concluding that play-based learning is critical but should also be supplemented with regular classroom teaching. It’s an important distinction and a reminder that although playbased learning has many advantages it is important to offer children more than one path of development (Golinkof et al. 2006). Social development is more than just how a child learns to interact with others, it encompasses a view of self, including self-esteem, and their confidence in social situations (Findlay & Coplan, 2008). Therefore this important aspect of development needs to be fostered in a number different ways. Social play has been shown to aid development in a number of different ways (Rubin et al., 1976), an idea support by Findlay & Copland (2008) who found that children who participated in organised sport correlated to an increase in positive self-esteem, social skills and confidence while children who did not participate had higher rates of shyness and “social skill deficiencies and internalising problems.”. Therefore it is clear that play is not only a tool to occupy children but that it is critical to their holistic