Toy-Play benefits and essential to child’s development

PLAY – IMPORTANCE

Playing is essential for kids’ growth because it contributes to children’s learning, physical development, and social and emotional well-being. Games also offer parents an excellent chance to get involved with their children. Even though the benefits of play for both children and parents are many, children are not obtaining sufficient time for play at home. There are many reasons the playtime has been reduced, like a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structure, and greater attention to studies and extracurricular activities at the expense of free child-centered play.

PLAY – BENEFITS

Games let children use their inventiveness and help in developing their imagination. It also boosts their skills and increases physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Playing is essential for healthy brain development. Children, at a very early age, engage and interact with the world around them through play. Play lets children create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers. As they excel in their world, play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and resiliency to face future challenges. Space allows children to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills. When children play independently, they learn decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their areas of interest, and ultimately be fully involved in the passions they wish to pursue. In contrast to passive entertainment, play builds active, healthy bodies.

Play is fundamental to the academic environment. It has been shown to help children adjust to the school setting and enhance their learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem-solving skills.

Advice for Parents

Parents can promote free play as a healthy, essential part of childhood.

They should emphasize that although parents can monitor play for safety, a large proportion of space should be child-driven rather than adult-directed.

They should emphasize the advantages of active play and discourage parents from using passive entertainment (e.g., television and computer games).

They should emphasize the benefits of “true toys,” such as blocks and dolls, with which children use their imagination entirely, over passive toys that require limited vision.

Emphasis should be that active child-centered play is a time-tested way of producing healthy, fit young bodies.

 

Conclusion

Parents should be reminded that the cornerstones of parenting—listening, caring, and guiding through effective and appropriate discipline—and sharing pleasurable time are accurate childhood predictors. They serve as a springboard toward happy, successful adulthood.