Why is playing so crucial in a child’s development?

The children have fun when playing; they learn to explore and discover. They learn to socialize and share while playing with others.

How Playing Influences a Child’s Development

Physical Growth

Using their small and large muscles during physical activities such as running, dancing, jumping, climbing, or digging stimulates growth. They remain active and learn to be independent.

Emotional & Social Growth

Children like to participate in imaginative and dramatic playing, such as role-playing or dressing up as different characters. When children participate in such activities, they develop emotional and social skills because they have to do the following tasks.

  • Work with other children
  • Negotiate the ideas
  • Learn to make decisions and choices
  • Face challenges and resolve problems
  • Learn to control their emotions
  • Act out their feelings by creating different scenarios from their experience
  • Learn to play with other children

Cognitive Growth

The children’s cognitive skills (learning, remembering, thinking or focus) become sharper when they play alone or with others. The following cognitive skills are developed through playing, such as

  • Problem-solving skills
  • Creativity and imagination
  • Learning to distinguish different shapes, measurements, colours or letters
  • Learn to count
  • Improvement in concentration, resilience and persistence

Growth of Linguistic Skills and Others

Children have to interact with others and think when playing, which results in the growth of linguistic and social skills.

Children love to explore different types of games. It builds up their sense of curiosity. These improvements are noticed when playing with others:

  • Learns new words and learn how to use them
  • Development in speaking and listening skills
  • Drawing/painting/scribbling activities lead to the development of writing skills
  • Learns about the characters/plot/structure/purpose of different stories
  • Learns to spell, recognize numbers and read
  • Learns that words, letters, numerals, symbols and signs are used for a reason

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